The Crew of the Emerald Queen
by ClassicHearts
Summary: This is the beginning of the crew's adventures, the recruiting of the basic elements, a medic, a navigator, and a mechanic. Diandriaa has her first encounter in leading the Emerald Queen.
1. An Awakening

Halden awoke from the side of a building. He looked down at himself as the smell of blood filled his nose. His cloths torn, his arm and legs bruised and battered. He winced as he moved a bit and a sharp pain shot into his head. He reached up and touched the left side of his head as he felt a large bump, which made him cringe in pain.  
  
"Wha...what the hell happened to me.... where am I?" Halden murmured to himself. He gazed around a bit. It seemed he was in some sort of docking area. He had no recollection of where he was, or even worse, who he was.  
  
He reached for the wall and began to pick himself up off the ground as a man strolled by.  
  
"Hey...hey, you alright man?" The guy ran over to Halden and assisted him up.  
  
"Th...thanks, I dunno what happened to me." Halden said to the man.  
  
"Well anyway someone sure had a problem with you. Whoever it was really didn't care for you 'cause they kicked the crap out of you." The man set Halden against the wall and made sure he was stable.  
  
"You should see a doctor or something. I have somewhere to be so take care of yourself man. You should get that looked at" He pointed to Halden's head and walked off.  
  
Halden pressed himself against the wall gazing into the air, trying to figure out what happened or who he was. Just then some sort of fighter craft flew by and a memory flashed into his brain. It was vague, but it was of him in a fighter ship being shot at, as it crash landed on some planet he didn't know, he figured it was this one.  
  
"So it seems like I'm some sort of fighter pilot." He reached into his pocket and found a bit of money. How it was there he did not know.  
  
"I need a drink." He said to himself and he stumbled toward a bar... __________________  
  
Halden sluggishly made his way into the bar and sat down at the first booth he could come by. He let go a sigh of relief as he sank into the cushions. He could feel his aces and pains already beginning to sooth. He pulled out his wallet to find more money then he thought and began to count it. A considerable amount, whoever beat him up obviously wasn't after his money. He put his money away and just put his head back.  
  
Out of the corner of his eye Halden noticed a man looking at him with interest. Halden picked his head up and the man turned the other way.  
  
"Hey waitress." Halden said and Terran waitress strolled on over.  
  
"What can I get you sir?" she replied.  
  
"Well, I'll have a beer, but anyway, who is that man over there?" and Halden nodded.  
  
The waitress turned around and then turned back. "That's Hunter...he's mostly a thug, always getting in trouble, watch out for him." She walked off to fetch Halden's drink.  
  
Halden looked over and noticed the man starring at him again, the man just smirked and downed his drink. Just then the waitress brought Halden his drink.  
  
"Thanks" he said and she smiled and walked off. He took a sip of his drink and slid down into his seat a bit more.  
  
After a bit of resting Halden felt a bit better and decided he needed a bit of fresh air. Slowly getting out of his seat he realized that his aces and pains were not fully healed. He dropped some money on the table and walked out. He figured he'd take a walk and maybe something would come to him. As he left the bar the man who was eyeing him stepped up and followed at a cautious distance.  
  
Halden was relieved as the gentle breeze hit his face as he slowly walked down the street. Something caught his eye and he turned down into an ally. He followed it, but it seemed to be only just a stray cat.  
  
"Man, I must be paranoid or something." Halden said as he turned around to face the man from the bar...Hunter.  
  
"Let me have your money, and I'll leave you alone." Hunter said harshly to Halden.  
  
"Straight and to the point eh? Well what if I don't feel like giving you my money?" Halden said rather arrogantly considering his condition.  
  
"Then I'll finish what someone else started" the Hunter said to him and shoved Halden back.  
  
"You know, I like that Jacket of yours. How about I'll give you my money, you give me your trench coat." Halden replied.  
  
The man smirked and ran towards Halden angered by his comments. Halden knew that in his condition he was in no room for a fight and decided to take the defensive side. Just then a fist came at Halden's face, which he grabbed then threw to the side sending the man with it. Hunter fell into a small heap of trash and immediately jumped to his feet.  
  
"You'll pay for that" the man yelled as he drew a knife from his pocket. Hunter jabbed at Halden's mid section as Halden took a step back. The man continued his furious attacks as the calm Halden simply dodged left or right to avoid them. One of the attacks nicked Halden's right shoulder as blood dripped to the ground.  
  
"Man, that one hurt!" Halden said as he grabbed his shoulder. "Time you got rid of that." Halden sent a sore kick to the surprised Hunter's wrist and sent the knife flying out of his hand.  
  
"Damn you!" Hunter yelled as he threw a fury of punches in Halden's direction. The first connected to Halden's stomach and the second to his chin which knocked him on his back near a dumpster. Hunter in a fit of rage ran over to finish the job, but Halden wrapped his legs around one of Hunter's and sent him crashing down as he smacked his head on the edge of the dumpster. Halden took this time to make a break for it, but before he did went over to the unconscious Hunter and removed him of his nice new trench coat.  
  
"Thank you."Halden said as he put it under his arm and began walking away.  
  
After reaching the bar again Halden decided to go lay low by the docks and made it over in that direction. Just then he heard a familiar voice from behind.  
  
"That's him, that's the guy!" Hunter yelled as he and his buddy ran after Halden.  
  
"Not again." Halden said as he ran towards the docks... __________________  
  
It took Diandriaa about a day to get to The Scorpion Bases. She was quite pleased. That meant that it would only take about another 2 days or so to reach Earth.  
  
She was making good time. She had managed to put herself into a mild trance, having the ship computer alert her when she approached any planet or space station, or whether she was being approached, or approaching any unfriendly craft. She came out of the trance rather easily and opened her eyes.  
  
Pleased with her results, but feeling mildly hungry, she went to the galley for a moment to grab a couple of muffins and an apple.  
  
-Approximately one and a half days later....  
  
"Baret Tegul."  
  
Diandriaa opened one eye and looked at the visual console, and twisted up her mouth. "Ugly little dusty planet that is," she thought to herself. The last time she had been there, was to help Palantir rescue a little Terran boy, an autistic child that was believed to be the reincarnation of some 21st century healer. They managed to save the boy, though Palantir remarked that he was surprised that her sneezing didn't give them away.  
  
Perhaps she wasn't being fair. It wasn't the planets fault that it was dusty. Being attacked will do that. Plus, parts of it were starting to look like a normal planet.  
  
Diandriaa checked to make sure the engines weren't overheating, grabbed another muffin and an apple from the galley, went back to the cockpit and went back into her little trance until she hit Earth.  
  
-Twenty-Four Earth Hours Later....  
  
"You are now approaching Earth..."  
  
"Ack!" Diandriaa cried out, being startled out of her trance.  
  
She thought she was having a past life vision. She saw herself, but it wasn't really herself. She was wearing somewhat traditional 21st century clothes, in a typical 21st century home, playing with two children. She looked like she might be pregnant, and there was a man, but it wasn't Palantir. He was a little shorter than Palantir, blondish brown hair, and spoke with a European accent. (which European accent that was, she didn't know) She didn't see Palantir anywhere, but on a screen in the house, she saw a man that looked a bit like him.  
  
Interesting. "Earth, This is the Emerald Queen, requesting permission to dock."  
  
"What is your business on Earth, Emerald Queen?"  
  
"Visiting an old friend."  
  
"Which part of Earth will you be visiting?"  
  
Diandriaa huffed. She wouldn't be surprised if they asked her what color panties she was wearing. "California Isle," she replied.  
  
"Dock 42. Enjoy your stay." __________________  
  
Halden was running fast as he could, trying to find a ship where he could get some help. Finally he gave up and just stopped and turned around.  
  
"Might as well fight 'em..." Halden said to himself as the 2 men approached. Halden slipped on the trench coat for some added protection.  
  
"Good fit, man this thing is nice" he said as he clenched his fists and got into his fighting position. As the two men approached one of them grabbed a knife from his pocket and the other put on a pair of brass knuckles.  
  
"You know we'd ask for your money and leave, but it looks like you've roughed my friend up a bit. So that means it's time for you to pay." the larger of the 2 said.  
  
Halden this time knew he didn't have much of a chance at winning so he tried to buy himself some time.  
  
"Well I do have some money if you guys want that..." Halden said rather reluctantly.  
  
The men just laughed and began to circle Halden. The one with brass knuckles went behind and the one with the knife came to the front. The guy with the knife charged at Halden and jabbed at him, but Halden stepped to the side but a fist connected to his back and sent him flying into the ground cringing in pain.  
  
"Ahhhhh..." Halden moaned as the pain shot up his spine.  
  
"Well that was easier then expected" one of the thugs said as he approached Halden. Halden lay there in pain rolling back and forth as he realized the end could be near... __________________  
  
Great, punks.  
  
That's all Diandriaa needed.  
  
A four-day trip through space to come to Earth to visit her dead boyfriends memorial, and she comes across this.  
  
Diandriaa was dressed in her black body suit, black boots, black trench coat and had her long, burgundy hair cascading down her shoulder and finally, topping the whole look off with a pair of black sunglasses.  
  
Yes, she was aware it was nighttime. But she didn't care. She looked good.  
  
She had, at first decided against leaving the ship, but she needed to stretch her legs for a while, maybe knock back an ale or two with one of Palantir's old military friends.  
  
As she stepped off the landing area that brought her from the docking area to the planet surface, she heard a pitiful cry coming from a nearby alley. Her curiosity got the better of her, so she quietly walked into the alleyway, to see two men, corning this other man. She lowered her sunglasses to have a better look, and saw that the man on the ground looked like he had some older wounds.  
  
Diandriaa sighed. She hated bullies, especially two against one. So not good. She took off her sunglasses, and placed them in her pocket. She then slipped her brass knuckles on her right hand, and pulled her energy pistol out of her belt with her left hand. She carefully crept up behind one of the men and aimed. Not with the gun, mind you.  
  
Diandriaa then made a fist with her hand, pulled it back, and with all the strength she had in her tired, space lagged body, through it forward into the back of the mans head. As the man crumpled to the ground without a sound, his friend whipped around. "What the fuck..." he gasped, reaching into his sheath for what Diandriaa thought was a dagger. As he turned to lunge at her, he saw a pistol aimed right between his eyes.  
  
"This ain't your fight bitch," he snarled, pulling the dagger out and preparing to use it on her if she let her guard.  
  
"Well, it is now," she smirked, "it's not nice, ganging up on a man two against one. Or can't you handle it without your girlfriend.."  
  
"You'll pay for that," he shouted, putting on foot forward in an effort to charge at her. Diandriaa raised an eyebrow as she aimed the pistol at his forehead.  
  
"You don't have the guts," he retorted. Diandriaa tilted her head slightly to the side and fired the pistol as she raised her hand just above his head.  
  
"I don't?" she asked sarcastically, as the coward dropped his knife and cowered back. "Give the man his wallet back."  
  
"How did you..."  
  
"Because I know your type. You hang around in bars, looking for anyone who looks like they have enough deccas and you and your buddy corners them and robs them. It's the oldest trick in the book..."  
  
The man reached into his pants pocket, removed the incapacitated mans wallet and tossed it on him. "W-w-hat about my jacket?" the man asked, putting his hands in the air.  
  
"Fuck your jacket," she snarled, "I figure its fair compensation for you and your friend beating the shit out of him. Now, grab your friend and get the fuck out of here, and if I ever, and I mean EVER see you or this shit pile again, I won't give you the courtesy of a warning shot."  
  
Diandriaa kept her pistol trained on him as the man lifted his friend up and quickly walk away with him.  
  
Diandriaa waited until they were clear, and approached the man on the ground as she put her pistol away.  
  
"Hey friend," she called out to him softly as she kneeled down next to him, "are you...."  
  
She already had her answer once she got a better look at him. __________________  
  
-meanwhile on a space-dock nearby  
  
The last two hours had been complete hell. Of course, she had hardly done anything but worry her butt off from the minute she knew how close they were. She hadn't been landside before. Bo had given her a couple of warnings; the old spacer mechanic always managed a few words of valuable advice before setting off on new adventures. However, due to the state of general disrepair and all out poorness of the crew, ship and company paying for the mining trip, she had nothing but a couple hundred deccas and the clothes on her back. And a meager education.  
  
A rush of breath left her nostrils as S'era poked her head inside of the small cabin. "Hey, doll," the raven-haired woman of forty offered. "It's about time. Y'got a minute ta give the crew one last farewell if ya want it." With that, the slight little pilot slipped back outside.  
  
Nadia was reluctant to leave the small 8' by 7' room, much less say goodbye to everyone who she had ever known. This had to be the longest trip attempted by the dumbest (and probably most bankrupt) company she could think of. And of all things, she had the misfortune of being born during the time. Granted, they had made the occasional stop at an asteroid belt.  
  
A few more minutes and there was the slightest change in the room. Her arms felt heavier, her feet more firmly held to the floor, even though she was sitting. A thought occurred to her. Earth gravity must be a little more. Hmm, interesting. One more new and alien thing for her.  
  
Looking around for her ear-piece, the only thing that keep her from being entirely alone in a bi- and tri-lingual world, she spotted it on the stainless steel cabinet next to her meager cot. Scooping it up, she plugged it into her ear and grabbed her duffel. It was light, filled with a jumpsuit or two, a bit of money, and her handy med kit.  
  
The girl avoided eye contact with all of her friends, adoptive parents really, since she hadn't known hers since she was five.... __________________  
  
They crowded down the hallway and onto the bridge to watch the huge carrier land. A thumb signaled it's arrival, and the crew turned as one to approach the door exit, which awaited them at the end of a rather thick hallway.  
  
Nadia was the first through the door, the light of midday striking her auburn hair and setting alive the fiery highlights. Her jumpsuit looked much more faded in the yellow light of earth's sun, and the world's colors much more true than the metallic blues and grays of the carrier. The greens perturbed her. In space, she couldn't recall how often she'd seen the color, and it was a surprise for her to find it everywhere. Well, realistically, there were only bits of it peeking through the pavement here and there. Hearty tufts struggling to outlast the day's heat and the night's chill with so little nutrients. There was the occasional tree as well, for looks mostly, she was sure. And shrubbery, which lined the front of buildings.  
  
By now, the slender female had walked the distance of the landing field to the hangar, presented several papers for some receptionist, whom she studied closely. The woman was wretchedly browned by the sun, and it didn't suit her face, which was delicate and made for a pale creamy complexion. I hope the sun doesn't do that to my face. However, the young woman's face was strong enough to be complimented by a bit of a tan, but appeared somewhat elegant with her pale-ish countenance.  
  
Nadia continued out of the building, sweeping past her friends and family for the past seventeen years, nearly eighteen now. She said not a word, nor made any signal. They were the past, and to think of them hurt the child. And therefore, she refused to look anywhere but ahead and to think of anything but the future.  
  
And what exactly, Nadia wondered, was to be her future. Well, first thing, to get her butt back on a ship as fast as she could possibly. Earth might've been interesting, but she knew immediately, from the feeling of being in a vast space so big she'd lose her way and be alone, Nadia knew Earth wasn't for her. However, the plants caught her attention. Wherever she intended to go next, she wanted a sliver of grass or a little tree on the next ship she boarded.  
  
The effects of the fractionally heavier gravity wore on her as she trudged through the complex city streets. Light exhaustion began to make her feet feel like leaden weights and her arms hung heavy at her sides. A decent bar scene would be nice. Her introduction to alcohol was meager, limited to watered down moonshine whiskey fermented and distilled on board with chemistry equipment (compliments of Bo and Jewlie, their little hacker/crafter who was a uniquely human like Mahdi), and the sweet old wines of their eccentric captain, Alex Baccardi. A little shadow cast over her face in remembrance of her motley crew.  
  
Spotting a building that was most assuredly a pub of some sort, she slipped inside, and laid a few of her meager deccas on the counter. "Whatever you've got that won't kill a tired girl." She wasn't pretending any sort of greatness or experience in drinking, and trusted the bristled big man behind the counter to supply her with good drink.  
  
The old man eyed the girl, a look as lusty as every. A pretty little thing she was, even though Nadia was easily the same height as the bartender, Cigre, though not half as broad (or wide if I might add) as he. The girl's head was down, picking at her bag in a most interested fashion. And she was indeed sincerely interested in liberating the frayed thread from the handle of her duffel. The grimy male quickly concocted a plan. Sindra, a bar maid, and mostly second in command, would keep an eye out. The little scam had been pulled before on the rare occasion a little lady such as this wandered into a bar unaccompanied.  
  
Reaching under the counter for a mug, he filled the cup up a quarter the way with a liquid that belonged in a shot glass. Moving over to the ale dispenser, he twisted the nozzle and watched the spray of frothy ale cover the dangerously glittering amber liquid. Pushing it in front of the crouched figure, Nadia absently grasped the mug and brought it to her lips. The bitter taste made her face scrunch and her eyes tear, but she drank the pint halfway down.  
  
A good ten to fifteen minutes after her first gulps, she felt queasy. Her stomach roiled and boiled within her and she could feel the acid stinging it's way up her throat. Her bag tossed on her shoulder, Nadia collected her change speedily and dashed out of the door, nearly tripping on several entering customers. Once beside the building, She hunched over, vomit discharging from her elongated through in waves. She wretched until nothing came out, until it hurt. Finally, her neck muscles aching and her stomach no longer nauseous, she stumbled away from the steamy pile of stomach acid and her last synthetic meal.  
  
Wobbling uncontrollably and seeing double images, Nadia walked right into Cigre about a block down, behind a weapons shop. The back street was littered with trash, and a squat glass plated building was blocking any exit from the narrow ally. The people weren't much for fung shui, she thought drunkenly, and reeled back away from the man. His big arms grasped hers, though, and she couldn't back up. "Heyyy, therrre! Wh-Wha-What's the big iiiideeeaaa, misterrrr?" Her tongue felt heavy, clumsy in her mouth and hardly able to form the words. The bartenders face was uncomfortably close to hers, and his hot breath felt sticky on her face. Trying to yank away, the man pushed up against the weapons building and preceded to reach for the zipper of her navy jumpsuit.  
  
By now, Nadia was struggling mightily to remain conscious as she caught on to the "big idea". The man looked eagerly to her chest as the zipper came down enough to expose the soft milky flesh of her breasts, stopping just short of full exposure from the girl's swatting hand. Cigre realized that she hadn't gone out quite yet. Disappointed and annoyed, the man with smushed, shadowy shoved her over onto a decently high pile of trash. Quite unbalanced, Nadia went with the movement and landed with a whoosh of air that let out of the bags beneath her. Her head swam with the sudden direction change, and she barely made out the looming sight of her aggressor standing over her. Making a last ditch attempt at freedom, the lithe female took aim for the man's crotch and let a rip.  
  
Her foot grounded audibly into the man's groin, and he sank down like the wicked witch of the west after being soaked with water. Nadia rolled off of her little bed and stumbled with better speed than she could've hoped to make. Her direction wasn't general, and she had to follow walls to stay upright. Amazingly enough, her duffel was still strapped to her back, the band running up from her left hip to her right shoulder.  
  
Soon the walls ran out, and she noticed a certain openness before her. Wandering aimlessly, she realized it was an immense and vast body of water. In her drunken state, she encountered her first sea ever. But compared to the vastness of space, Nadia wasn't too awed. Closer than the sea though, she made out two retreating figures, and a kneeling one. Hardly up for traveling much farther, Nadia stood slouched, one hand propping her up on bent knees and another wiping her nose.  
  
Straightening, she made a miserable inebriated call to the duo, a tall, slim girl with straight, ginger hair reaching well beyond her shoulders, suited in a cobalt boiler suit partially unzipped and heavy black boots. What a sight... __________________  
  
Diandriaa looked up as she heard another pitiful cry coming from in front of her. She cautiously reached for her gun. "Hey," she called out, "you all right over there? Don't try anything funny, I am armed..."  
  
Diandriaa knelt there, at a loss as to what to do. She didn't want to leave the wounded man there and go aimlessly looking for help and she also wanted to see if the figure propped up against the nearby wall was okay.  
  
"You wouldn't be able to help me over here, would you?" she called out to the figure as she stood. "this man is really badly hurt, he needs medical attention. Do you need any help?"  
  
Diandriaa took a deep breath, trying to figure out what she could do without having to leave these people behind. __________________  
  
The woman's words called out to her in return made sense, she knew they did. But what sense they made, she wasn't sure. Wandering forward, she felt the world spin wildly. Thinking as deeply as her intoxicated mind could, she strung together the meaning of the lady's words. Help, she wanted help.  
  
Stumbling and tripping over nothing in general, she nodded and watched the world fly around her. But things were getting better. Notably, her feet managed to make some sort of rhythm and her pace increased, still nothing more than a careful walk.  
  
Mumbling to herself about not having a goddamn weapon, and what was the world coming to, she realized that there was another pitiful body propped next to the strange woman. Focusing hurt her eyes, and a deep throb of pain was beginning at the base of her neck, but things made a bit more sense.  
  
Coming upon the man and woman, a short gasp of surprise escaped her lips. The man was in pretty bad shape. Instinct returned to her, letting the human part of her slip away, as useless as it was. Naturally, her nervous system had recovered nearly enough to make up for her clumsy movements, but automatic motions allowed her to perform.  
  
Kneeling carefully, compensating for her erratically shifting balance, Nadia pulled her duffel from over her head and reached inside for her medical kit. Setting it aside momentarily, she took a second to give the man a once-over and find out where exactly his wounds were and what sorts she would have to deal with. __________________  
  
Diandriaa stared. She was amazed that this seemingly intoxicated woman suddenly recovered her wits enough to help her with this...  
  
Unconscious man? To weak to say anything guy? Or in too much pain to be coherent enough to respond person?  
  
And when the woman pulled out her med case, she was stunned to see that the woman was a medical specialist.  
  
The almighty is looking out for you tonight pal, she thought to herself.  
  
"You okay to handle this yourself?" she asked the woman, "or would you like me to help with something?"  
  
She then bent over to get a better look at the wounded man. "Hey guy," she snapped, trying to get him to respond, "we're trying to help, but you have to tell us what exactly is wrong with you..."  
  
She stood upright and sighed again. Short of slapping him awake, she didn't know what to do. __________________  
  
Her head swam, and her hands shook. Nadia ran her fingers down the strange man's ribs and back, looking for any broken bones, wishing she were in a better state to show off her medical prowess. When the woman asked if she needed assistance, the girl was relieved. She didn't think that she could treat the puncture wound on his shoulder, not with her state off clumsiness. Afraid to nod, and finding it hard to answer clearly, she mumbled a yes and pointed to the bloodied shoulder.  
  
From the looks of things, most were wounds from heavy impact, most likely incurring some internal damage, but she didn't have equipment to deal with that. Handing the woman her med kit, she pulled out gauze and saline to rinse the wound. It was fresh, and if cleaned properly early on, there would be a minimal chance of infection. Enunciating the words carefully, Nadia sat back heavily from her crouching position, her legs tired as could be. "Take saline, clean carefully. Then wrap in gauze." It was obvious that further medical attention was required, but the shoulder could be taken care of first.  
  
Then pointing to a bag that, when the chemical packets inside were popped and shaken, turned into a handy cold compress, she motioned to the obvious lump on the left side of his mussed head. The lady would get the point, seeing as how there were directions on the bag (1. Squeeze bag until contents inside pop 2. Shake until cool 3. Apply).  
  
Rising laboriously to her feet, she stumbled off to find a phone. They would need an ambulance over quickly. She'd hate it if he did in fact have internal bleeding and she dawdled too long. Still, she would've loved a stimpack or something to give her a pep-up. It would take at least two to three hours before she got the alcohol out of her system. __________________  
  
Diandriaa knelt back down, taking the bag that the girl was handing to her, and did as she instructed. She cleaned the shoulder wound and placed the ice pack on the mans head as the girl got up and stumbled away.  
  
The mans injuries looked bad. She didn't know where the girl was going, but hopefully, she was going to reach a phone and call an ambulance or something. Hopefully. Some of this mans wounds looked fresh, but some looked a little old, like he had been jumped the day before but didn't get medical attention.  
  
People were stubborn sometimes, especially men. It was the same with dumb old Palantir. If he had stayed where he had been stabbed, he would have been treated right away and wouldn't have bled to death. He probably thought it was only a flesh wound.  
  
Men. She loved them, respected them, but most of them thought they were so invincible.  
  
She turned her neck and looked behind her as the woman walked towards the landing platform. She hoped to god she would be all right. __________________  
  
The urge to vomit came again, but there was nothing left in her stomach, as she hunched over and wretched. Her feet wouldn't answer her command to move as quickly as her legs, making her walking somewhat erratic. Making it in to a nearby building, she asked for a phone, for an emergency. The room itself was brightly lit and palely painted, reminiscent of a hospital, Nadia thought.  
  
She was lead down a back hall to an office and pointed to an audio/visual phone. An emergency hospital wouldn't have a visual option on their emergency lines, no doubt. Reaching the desk, she plopped into the chair in picked out the numbers, slowly but surely. Hating to be forced to talk in her embarrassing state, she made the words out as best she could. "Injured man, bar fight and old wounds. Eastern docks," and Nadia wished she knew the area better. Waving to the watching employee, she asked him in a stage whisper," What pier is at the end of the buildings?"  
  
"Pier 18, section C." Giving the person on the other end the information, they gave her the customary," We'll have a med team there in a minute. Please do not move the victim or attempt any other treatment." It was the sound of a unisex voice, Nadia noticed, a recording. How unfortunate that humans didn't man the switchboards anymore, as inefficient as it might be. Well, at least it meant she couldn't be annoyed with it for telling her not to treat the man. After all, Nadia was a med, however low level. But she brushed that aside.  
  
Not wanted to stretch her chances, she wondered aloud and laboriously," Got a painkiller or stimpack?" The store was mostly odds and ends, she noticed when she entered the customer's area.  
  
The stores stimpacks were pricier than she could afford, and even their Kylemol drained her meager funds. Instead, she turned to head back to the docks, arriving with the sound of distant blaring horns following her at brisk pace. Look to the unconscious man, then to the woman, and then to the direction of the approaching sirens, Nadia waited drowsily. __________________  
  
Any urge Diandriaa had to drink, was completely diminished as she heard sirens in the distance, and turned to look at the woman. The way the woman was acting, reminded her of the other night on Osiris when she got plastered with Amber. She was definitely in no mood to go through that again.  
  
"Did someone call for an ambulance?" she heard a voice call out as the sirens got very close. She got up and walked around the corner to see an ambulance and a squad car. "Over here," she called back, waving the paramedics over. Two paramedics rushed over to the injured man and a police officer approached her. "What happened to him?" one of the paramedics asked her.  
  
"Well, I'm not sure what happened before I got over here, but it looked like these two guys were trying to rob him and he resisted, cause he was on the ground and one guy had just kicked him in the stomach," she replied. The police officer looked at her gruffly.  
  
"What's your name?" he asked, looking like he wasn't exactly thrilled about the prospect of paperwork.  
  
"Diandriaa," she replied, knowing exactly what questions he was going to ask her, "I'm a Valertrez, I pilot the Emerald Queen, no, if you look me up in your computers, I'm not wanted for anything, and no, I don't know my last name...."  
  
The police officer glared at her briefly as he wrote everything down in his PDA. "How long ago did you land?" he asked.  
  
"A little over an hour ago," she replied.  
  
"Did you get a look at the two men that did this?"  
  
"One of them. I only caught the back of the others hand before I laid him out..."  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"Okay, here's what happened. I walked from the landing platform towards town when I heard someone cry out. When I went over to have a better look, I saw one guy with a knife and the other had just kicked the guy in the stomach. I was afraid they would kill him, so I put my brass knuckles on, and punched that one in the back of his head, and he fell. The other one tried to come at me with the knife, so I fired a warning shot at him, then he tossed the guys wallet back on him, grabbed his friend and took off."  
  
"Good for you. Now, do you remember what the other guy looked like?"  
  
"I would if I saw him again. I just know he was ugly and he smelled bad."  
  
"Heh. Who called the ambulance?"  
  
"That girl over there," she replied, turning and pointing towards the girl, who was leaning against a post, "I called to her and we cleaned his wound on his shoulder and I held the ice pack on his head while she walked off to call you guys. She's a bit plastered, so she won't be very coherent, plus, I doubt she even saw anything."  
  
"Thanks miss, good work. If you hadn't of stepped in, that guy would be as good as dead. I'll contact you on your ship if I need anything else."  
  
As the cop walked over to the girl, Diandriaa saw the paramedics put the man on the stretcher.  
  
"We think he's going to be all right," one of them called to her as they wheeled him over to the ambulance, "it's a good thing you two were here..."  
  
Diandriaa smirked. She wasn't much for ego inflating, but this made her feel good. She walked over to the young woman as the cop patted her on the shoulder and walked towards his car. "Hey," she said to her softly, "you did pretty good. I know you're not feeling well, but I have some food and some Kylemol on my ship, both of which I think you need right now. And you can catch some sleep too if you need to. My way of saying thanks for helping me out..." __________________  
  
Whatever happened next, Nadia could hardly tell, but she did notice too much activity around her for it to just be the woman. The ambulance had gotten here. Good, there wasn't anything to worry about anymore. A police officer approached her with several kind words. At least, his tone implied that. A moment later there was the woman in black. Absorbing what she said, Nadia shook her head slowly, suddenly nauseous again. Holding back, she stood straight with an hand on her newfound friend's shoulder for support. "Let's go."  
  
The sound of Kylemol and sleep, it was just what she needed. Absently, Nadia said," No more drink on Earth." __________________  
  
Halden awoke from the stretcher as he was being taken to the hospital.  
  
"What the...man, get this stuff off of me!" he said as he ripped some of the needles going into his body off.  
  
"Sir, your banged up pretty good, you need a good days rest." one of the paramedics told him.  
  
"I don't need nothing now let me go." Halden saw the car stopped and decided it was time to make a move. He sat up from his stretcher. The pain rushed throughout his body as he knew he really did need medical attention, but wasn't willing to pay for it. He knocked the back door open and hopped out. Feeling light-headed he looked down at his trench coat to see it stained in blood from his shoulder wound.  
  
"At least it's patched up" he said. He made his was toward the dock where someone had helped him. He figured he'd be the nice guy and re-pay them someway. He had nowhere to go, and didn't really know who he was. All he knew was his name was Halden and he could fight pretty well...when he wasn't hurt.  
  
Halden stepped into the dock area to see a ship and what looked to be two women.  
  
"Maybe that's them" he thought to himself as he made his way towards them.  
  
The two women turned to him as he approached. Halden stood 6'1'' tall and looked to weigh about 220 lbs. His face was a little battered and his trench coat was in pretty good shape despite what had happened. His brown hair, which was going all different directions, flew back as a breeze blew by. He winced as another sting of pain shot up his arm.  
  
"So are you the two who helped me, out here? I'd like to re-pay you. I don't have much money and I don't really know of anything else I own...so all I can really offer are my services. So if you need me for something, just ask." Halden said. Maybe finally he could tag along with a crew and try to find something out about himself. __________________  
  
When the injured man approached them, she was appalled, but further annoyed and worried (and slightly gawked at his height, standing a good half a foot taller than her). Nadia had just managed to ship off that battered man that had been her charge minutes ago and now he was back again. And her responsibility. And seeing as how the girl was in no shape to worry, she looked to her supporter to rant at the man about how he needed medical care, and should not to be wandering about like this.  
  
Damn medical morals. And damn her nurturing personality, even in her state.  
  
The stress finally consumed her, and the young woman's face drained, becoming pale. Before her, the world faded to black and she slid down the arm of the older woman, ending in a passed out heap at the lady's feet. It looked as if she'd be sleeping off the shit she'd drank. __________________  
  
"Uh, yeah, I ran off the two guys that were kicking the shit out of you, and she tended to you until the paramedics arrived," Diandriaa huffed, turning towards the man, "and in my opinion, you did a pretty dumb thing leaving the ambulance. You could have internal bleeding that will kill you later..."  
  
Diandriaa looked down as the girls face twisted into an annoyed grin, then passed out at her feet. "Oh wonderful," she mumbled, then turning back to the man, "you know, it's on you, whatever happens. I can't tell you how to take care of your own body, but if you want to repay me, you can help me carry her to my ship, if you're up for it. If not, I can probably carry her, but you need to get some rest to heal."  
  
Diandriaa bent down and started to lift the girl up by her arm, in an attempt to get the girls arm around her neck and her own arm around her waist so she could walk her to the ship. Diandriaa looked over at the man.  
  
"You coming?" __________________  
  
Halden smirked a bit and walked over to help the girl to the ship. He made sure to use the arm that wasn't killing him with pain.  
  
"You know I'm not really hurt that badly, and I can take care of myself..." Halden said rather arrogantly. He looked over to his dirty trench coat.  
  
"You got something I can clean this off with?" he said with a smirk as they entered the ship. __________________  
  
Nadia made several murmuring noises, as if she were in a dream. However, the girl was hovering just near consciousness, trying mightily to wake up. To no avail, though. Her mind and body were exhausted. Too many factors on top of alcohol content, including the time difference between her ship and Earth time. That alone meant she was lagging behind. Along with the decimal difference of gees between the ship and Earth. Add yet another fact, her last meal had been a good four hours ago, and Nadia was not in the prime state for quickly returning to a state of sobriety. Her inert body couldn't be help them either, though she was relatively lightweight. __________________  
  
Diandriaa detected a bit of arrogance in the mans voice and frowned as they reached the TCP that would take them to the Emerald Queen. "Arrogance killed my boyfriend," she retorted, "he thought as long as he got to the ship, he would be fine. But a knife wound in the guts has its own rules. Don't let that happen to you."  
  
Diandriaa pressed the dock number on the keypad and then pressed "Ready" and the TCP suddenly beamed them off upwards. "In four days," she continued, talking to hear herself talk, "is the fifth year anniversary of his death. That's why I'm on Earth..."  
  
They reached the dock the ship was on within a few minutes. Diandriaa "pulled" (for lack of a better term) the incapacitated woman and the over confidant man to the ship. She pushed the secret code in order to open the ramp, and proceeded to lead them inside.  
  
Their first stop, was Diandriaa's old room. "Lay her down here," she said, motioning towards the bed with her head. After they laid her down, Diandriaa motioned to the man to follow her to the galley. __________________  
  
"Well I'm sorry to hear about your boyfriend and all, but where's some food?" Halden said as he looked around.  
  
"Nice ship too." he added as he followed her into the galley.  
  
Just then a sudden flash came into his mind. A picture of a ship appeared on some planet that he didn't know. Halden dropped to one knee as the picture got worse and more vivid. He could see a man running towards it being chased by a group of people. He saw the man punching the numbers to be brought up to his ship as he was shot at. The door opened on the drop ship and the man turned and entered. As the man turned Halden noticed it was himself entering the ship. A bright white light flashed in his mind as he let out a cry in anger and put his hands on his head as to get rid of the memory.  
  
__________________ Most people would have been offended or aggravated by the mans comments.  
  
"Sorry about your boyfriend, but where's the food?"  
  
Diandriaa eyed the man as they walked into the galley. This was a guy who's used to doing everything on his own, she thought. It also looks like he had a head injury and god knew what else. And he probably had a drink or two as well. She didn't think he was too bad, of course, she wasn't the type to judge a person based on a first impression. But she did think he was too macho and arrogant for his own good.  
  
But at least he thanked her for helping in. She didn't that consideration very much.  
  
She started rifling through the refrigerator looking for something that would appeal to the man. "Ah, you should like this," she said, pulling the tray out of the freezer, "Salisbury steak and mashed potatoes...."  
  
He cried out as she turned to him, just in time to see him grab his head. She froze for a second, looking at him. Then, she realized she made the same angry sound whenever she remembered something she didn't want to remember. "I don't know about you," she said softly, popping the tray in the heating unit, "but I feel the same way when I get certain memories. Of course, I don't know if that's what it is. Anyway, I'm going to take a tray to our passed out lil-missy in there for when she wakes up. I'll be back in a couple of minutes, if you wanna talk about it. When you hear a beep that means your food is ready. Go on and help yourself."  
  
She then grabbed a tray of fruit, muffins and some juice to take to the room of her new friend. __________________  
  
Nadia had awoken momentarily after being left for the galley. Her head throbbed horribly and then fiery-haired girl was quite thankful for the pillow that propped her head up. The thins sheets felt blissfully cool. Rolling over tenderly, careful not to disturbed her reeling head, she settled deeply into a bed of higher quality than the cot she had occupied for the last seventeen years of her life. The change for better was quite welcome.  
  
The sound of the still unnamed woman's approach called her awake to thank her for the help given, but Nadia begged her manners to shut the hell up and let her sleeeeeep! Sitting up doggedly, but with no intention of staying that way long, she waited for her newfound friend. The thanks owed was all that stood between the girl and several hours of dreamland.  
  
__________________  
  
"...surprised to find that Marcus had been expecting their arrival, and greeted two of the officials with his illegally modified Plasma Pistol. Terran Officers opened fire, striking Marcus in his left shoulder, causing him to drop his weapon. After searching his laboratory, the TFP was able to recover several incriminating documents related to the charges Marcus confessed to.  
  
Coincidentally, Shane's wife apparently filed for divorce a mere three days before Marcus went public with his illegal ties. It is as of yet unknown if this event provided Marcus with any motivation. The two officers wounded during the raid on Marcus Shane's office suffered severe injuries, but are both expected to make a full recovery."  
  
Diandriaa casually flipped the ships radio on to catch the latest on DSRnet and caught what seemed to be the tail end on yet another wacko getting arrested. She was very relieved when they apprehended that famous assassin the week before.  
  
Diandriaa walked into the quarters where her and the gentleman in the galley placed the girl and was a little surprised to see her sitting up. "Uhh, I brought you some food, just a few apples and grapes, and a couple of muffins, one is pumpkin and the other is poppy seed, they're really good," Diandriaa spat out, "I also brought you some water and a little bit of apple juice to take the Kylemol with, whenever you're up to it. I'm Diandriaa, by the way, and you're on the Emerald Queen. When you're feeling more up to it, I can show you around the ship if you want..."  
  
Diandriaa started to walk out the door, when she turned back around. "You should actually take the pain killers now, before you go to sleep," she suggested, "it won't get rid of your hangover, but it will make it a lot more bearable. Sweet dreams.."  
  
Diandriaa smiled at the young lady and went back over to the galley to see how her other new friend was doing. __________________  
  
After recovering from his little episode Halden could feel his stomach growl in hunger. The heating unit beeped letting him know his food was done. He grabbed the plate out form the machine and set it on the table. He searched around for a fork of some sort, but found nothing. Probably because he didn't look hard enough. He reached into his boot and pulled out a small pocketknife and stabbed at the steak. Halden immediately devoured the entire thing up threw away the empty dish.  
  
"Well this looks like a nice ship, maybe I'll have a look around." Halden said as he began to wander the ship. __________________  
  
A mumbled thanks and acceptance of the Diandriaa's charity, Nadia took the juice gratefully and down the Kylemol and liquid. Sinking back into the pillow, she drifted off, eager to get away from the pain.  
  
The mists in front of her broke and she could that she was back on the old company ship. Bo, S'era, Jewlie, Alex Baccardi, and her parents, Kara Asiro and Seth Asiro, they all faced her, along with several others whom she hadn't been quite as fond of. They were all welcoming her back, calling her home. She even saw faces she didn't remember, like a tall broad and rakishly handsome raven haired man, who laughed heartily and called her to him. She went forward, and her vision twisted like water draining into a pipe, leaving her to stand there in the black...  
  
Specks of light appeared. Then a planet as she slowly rotated. The sun was glaring somewhere behind her as she floated in zero gee. She wondered how she could be outside in the cold vacuum of space. Still she rotated until the face the space ship she had lived on for years. She was by the piloting bubble, a compartment made of a material clear as glass but doubly strong. She wasn't sure what it was called. The sun beyond the ship created a corona of light, setting the hull's shadows into deeper hues. In the compartment, she saw the crew, in tears and pointing. Her mother was bawling into her father's shoulder and S'era was pounding the glass in agony. Looking for the man easily called tall, dark, and handsome, she didn't see him. Slowly, she realized she couldn't move either. They thought she was dead, didn't they? Wanting to call out to her grieving mother, she was helpless just floating in space...  
  
Nadia continued to sleep with bizarre dreams. The handsome nameless man was there sometimes, and sometimes he wasn't. Her parents were always there, even though they were dead and gone. No sense could be made of the drunken sleep and when she awoke some five or six hours later she dismissed it as just that, a drunken sleep. __________________  
  
Diandriaa walked out of the room in time to see the man walking out of the galley. "Well, you look like you're feeling better," she stated, walking over to him, "I take you if you wanna tour of the ship..."  
  
"Well, to your left there, you can see the door that leads downstairs to the engine room, that's also where the cooling units are. To your right, are the stairs leading to the cargo hold. Right ahead of you is the rec- room, it doesn't have much in it at the moment though. Next to that is two empty rooms then the med bay. Right across from the med bay is the captain's quarters, otherwise known as my room, and two empty rooms next to that. Next to my room is where we came in, and across the way is the TPT and escape pod rooms. Straight ahead there," she said, pointing to her left, "is the cockpit and the ships main computer. I pretty much control everything from there. And the pretty green color on the outside and inside of the ship, is why we call her Emerald Queen. Our friend is in the room right next to the med bay, so you can pick any other room to sleep in, which is what I suggest you do, at least for a few hours. I'm going to read in my cabin for a while, and get some sleep. If you need anything, just knock. Feel free to look around, but please, don't touch anything that looks overly important. I have a lot of old earth video games in the rec- room that you can play on the computer if you want."  
  
She smiled and walked down the hall and into her room. It was odd, sleeping in Palantir's old room, but since she was officially the captain, it was her right. She grabbed a book entitled "Infamous Serial Killers of the 20th Century" and hopped unto the bed and proceeded to read, hoping that the man didn't pull anything. She didn't think he would, but he made sure to keep her ears open, just in case.  
  
The man in the cast walked up to Diandriaa as she lay sprawled on the shore of the beach. "Excuse me miss," the man said, "I need some help getting my boat from my car. Can you help me? By the way, my name is Ted..."  
  
Diandriaa sat up, stared at the familiar face, and screamed. She was wearing a black, form fitting bathing suit, her wet burgundy hair laying down her back. The mans face became ugly and distorted and as she started running away from her, he dropped the cast and took off after her. As she ran into the woods, still screaming, she grabbed a tree branch and stopped, swinging it full force into his head as he neared her. Confident that she at least knocked the Ted man out, she proceeded to walk away, when she felt something grab her ankle. She looked down and saw Ted's twisted, animal features and screamed again....  
  
And that was pretty much when Diandriaa woke up, screaming. She opened her eyes and lifted up her head. When she looked down, she noticed that she fell asleep reading her book, and the reason she had the dream was staring back up at her from the picture in the book.  
  
Diandriaa got up to use the bathroom, cursing herself under her breath for being dumb enough to read awful things like that before falling asleep. She used the toilet, and washed her hands and face in the sink. She rubbed her eyes, considering changing into a sleeping gown, but decided to first check and make sure everything on the ship was fine. She walked into the cockpit. Nothing missing, nothing messed with. Same with the med bay, the galley, the rec- room and the engine room (how she managed to walk down the stairs without freaking out because of that dream, was beyond her). Nothing was amiss at all. She didn't feel like checking every room to see where the man was, so she went back to her quarters.  
  
Before she started to change her clothes, she let her paranoia get the better of her, grabbed her energy pistol and looked under her bed, in her closet and in her shower. She huffed, setting the gun back on the headboard. If that guy were going to try something, he would have done it a long time ago, the minute she turned her back on him. She had the com in the girl's one on in hers, just in case, and never heard anything.  
  
She felt foolish, suspecting that poor man of trying anything. She studied him a bit when they first got on board, and didn't see anything in his mind to indicate he was dangerous in anyway.  
  
It was that damn book. That and falling asleep while reading that damn book. The subject matter fascinated her, but she learned the hard way never to read stuff like that before she went to bed. She had changed from her body suit to her sleeping gown, and while she put on a robe and crawled into bed, she thanked god that Ted Bundy had been executed over a thousand years ago. As she flipped off all but her reading light and closed her eyes, she wandered how many Ted Bundy's had been born since then. She grimaced and started thinking about something more pleasant, in particularly, about the possibility of running into her Hani friend, Amber sometime soon. She missed her. __________________  
  
Nadia awoke to find Diandriaa awake, snooping around the ship with suspicion on her face. Letting the woman have her moment, Nadia decided against telling them that she had come back from the ever-popular "Dreamland". There wasn't a particular reason, she just found herself in want of a bit of privacy.  
  
Taking the time that she had made for herself, the girl moved over to the computer console. These were two round rods(15 inches tall) of plastic with holographic projectors facing each other on the inside and set apart about 16 inches, elevated on the wall across from her bed. Choosing operation by audio command, she waited as the computer loaded, and watched the holographic screen appear and hover.  
  
Reaching for the tray of food that had been brought in some hours ago by her very hospitable hostess, she picked out the poppy seed muffin. "Gourmet cooking," she said to herself with a half-grin. Movement on the console made her realize she had given a command. Shrugging it off, she commanded," Search." The screen turned a shade of violet and a voice replied," Enter query." "Current events." A list of texts appeared. "Live feed." The text scrolled out, and an image that expanded to the size of the screen replaced the blank violet background. The familiar logo of Star Cast 9 floated in the bottom left corner. Munching on the muffin, Nadia watched a newscaster, who was rolling footage in the top left corner of creatures in a jungle environment and was reporting,  
  
"Extinct Creature reappears after Twenty Year Absence  
  
A recent scientific expedition onto a remote Xu-Adey jungle world has brought about the rediscovery of a small colony containing the once thought extinct Hai-Lai (pronounced Hi-Li). Until this discovery, it was believed that the last of the species had died off more than twenty years on the Jungle Resort of Beletchi Station.  
  
The discovery has rocked the scientific community, as the creature was one of the most beloved off of Beletchi Station. It is planned to take several from the colony for testing and breeding on Beletchi Station, the rest will remain in the protected habitat."  
  
Amused with the good news, rare these days, she commanded the console for location of the Emerald Queen. Nadia was well aware of where ship was. Right under her nose. But where that was, well that was a different story. "Please wait while satellite searches database for Emerald Queen." Sitting back comfortably, the girl assumed that Diandriaa had heard her by now, and could have just as easily asked, but the dull ache in her head begged her to just sit still and ask the helpful computer. "A reading has been found of Emerald Queen..." Ignoring the latitude and longitudes, she requested a pinpoint on a map. "California Isle, eh?" There wasn't much significance in where she was, even though is was good to know. She could've been dropped in some foreign land and that would've been fine with her.  
  
Finally standing and stretching, ignoring aching at the base of her skull, Nadia shuffled into the hall. Poking her head next door, she looked into what she realized was the med bay. "Ooh, exploration time," then thought against it. Diandriaa wouldn't appreciate a stranger wandering her medical bay. But it was tempting.  
  
Instead, Nadia snooped around for Diandriaa's quarters. As luck would have it, unbeknownst to Nadia as of yet, the young woman chose to first check the door across from med bay. Knocking lightly, she listened for a response. __________________  
  
Halden after looking around the ship a bit more decided to go for a walk. He left a small note on the cockpit door to let the crew know where he was. He made his way to the exit ramp and headed down towards Earth.  
  
Halden arrived on the planet looking around as to make sure no one was after him. It was time he found something to protect himself with. He strolled down the first street he came across and found a shop labeled "Jimbo's Weapon Shop". He chuckled at the name and entered the shop. The man at the counter nodded at his entrance.  
  
"What can I help you buy today sir?" the man asked Halden.  
  
"Well, I was looking for a sword of some sort." Halden replied.  
  
"I got just the thing." the man said as he reached behind the counter and pulled out a Ritelanium Sword and sheath. "This one's real sturdy and strong and will last you a long time, and it's only 800 deccas."  
  
"800 deccas eh?" Halden picked up the sword and examined it. It seemed to be in mint condition and it flowed gracefully threw his hands. "I'll take it" Halden said to the man.  
  
After paying for his sword and equipping the sheath under his trench coat he decides to head back to the ship.  
  
After arriving back on the ship he quietly heads to the rec- room as to not wake anyone up. The door shuts behind him and he takes his trench coat and shirt off and places them off to the side. He takes the sword out of its sheath and moves it around a bit with his hand. Suddenly he takes the sword and makes a series of quick and graceful movements with the sword as if he was attacking someone.  
  
"Seems like I know how to use a sword too." Halden says to himself. "Haaaa!" he yells as he jabs at the air and brings the sword up as if to block an attack.  
  
He yells and drops the sword as a flash of light comes into his mind. The vision this time is what Halden thinks to be himself except younger. The young Halden seems to be practicing with a smaller sword with someone else.  
  
"Now Halden, I'm going to attack you and I want you to defend." The man said.  
  
"Yes master." the young Halden replied. The bright light again appeared in Halden's mind as he returned to reality. Halden laid on the ground and rubbed his head as the painful memory faded.... __________________  
  
"Yeah, this has to be the one. Its the only ship that hasn't gone anywhere," Terry said to himself, as he stared at the large vessel through his sunglasses. It was mid-morning, and the sky looked darker than it really was, as he was wearing those tinted shades.  
  
He was certain this was the particular ship he was looking for, and even if it wasn't, he would probably ask the crew if he could accompany them anyhow. Terry had no intention to return to The Tigershark; his captain and crew had really gotten into a mess this time. He had left a crew of close friends before, but this time by his own will.  
  
Still stuck on the thought that these people might be sleeping, Terry continued to wait for complete daylight to spread across the sky, the sun had yet to rise. He could hear few vehicles passing by, as he stared down at his briefcase. He remained patient, constantly taking a glimpse of his current surroundings once he removed his eyes from his bags. It was nice to be on Earth again, although he hadn't revisited his old home, but he was happy to be here nonetheless.  
  
Terry's mind began to wander, mostly about his visit with Mauri, and why she refused to go with him. Rather than dwell on the thought, he tried to stop thinking altogether and keep waiting. He found where he was going, or so he hoped, and was prepared for anything. All he had to do now was wait for someone from this ship to contact him in some way. __________________  
  
Diandriaa had that dream again.  
  
The one about the person with the blue hair and the grease on their face. She still couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman, but this time, Amber was with them.  
  
Nothing was said. They just walked by her, the Hani woman smiled at her and that was it. Diandriaa was just about to ask Amber who the person was, when she was awakened by a tapping on her door.  
  
At least she thought she heard tapping. It could have been part of the dream. She decided to just stay where she was, she needed the sleep anyway. She needed the energy to talk to the girl and the man about maybe joining the ship. She needed a med specialist, but she would find out what the other guy could do before she hired him.  
  
She drifted back off to dreamland, as she pondered the possibilities in her head. She figured if there was someone at the door, they would knock again louder, if it was important. __________________  
  
The knock brought no reply in the first few minutes, and Nadia was a bit antsy in the midmorning hush. Blinking her eyes briefly shut, the girl reached out a bit for minds focused around then Emerald Queen. Ah, there's our friend, Halden, a feeling of slight exertion and the object occupying his thoughts brought to several conclusions. Again, Nadia reached out and found one she didn't recognize. A brief touch just beyond the outer barriers of this mind, and she was brought into the conscious world of a man... Terry, it seemed. A sense of waiting accompanied him, focused on the Emerald Queen. Respect for people's privacy and a deep sense of morals taught her not to probe deeply into people's minds, but her curiosity was certainly piqued.  
  
Still, her search for the Captain of the ship was not yet fulfilled. One last probe led her to the sensitive mind of Diandriaa. Ah, another telepathic mind. She might not appreciate my curiosity. Rather than actually step beyond the boundaries of this consciousness, she merely gave it a nudge, a stimuli for reply, but no message of any sort attached. __________________  
  
While Diandriaa fell back into sleep, she felt a mental nudge, as though someone were trying to connect with her.  
  
She didn't know who this was, being the fact that she was actually asleep at the time. She just threw out what she normally threw out whenever she felt someone trying to communicate with her.  
  
"My name is Diandriaa. I don't know my last name. My parents left me on Satyena during a raid nearly 30 years ago. I have not seen them since. I am told I have a sibling, but I do not know whom that person is. I inherited this ship from the original owner, Palantir Apollo Fairbanks after his death nearly six years ago. I am Valertrez, I will be 32 at the end of the Sol Calendar year, my favorite color is black, my favorite food is muffins and I don't function at all unless I have my coffee in the morning."  
  
There, that oughtta make whoever that was happy.  
  
Suddenly, she awoke and sat up.  
  
Whoever it was that was trying to mentally poke at her, managed inadvertently to portray a minor thought to her.  
  
Diandriaa jumped up and barged out of her room, rather sleepily calling out, "Who the hell is this Terry, and what's he doing lurking about outside my ship?"  
  
She then stopped, puzzled and shouted again "And who is Halden?"  
  
Diandriaa wiped the sleep out of her eyes as she plodded over to the cockpit to open the hatch. She then made her way outside to see a young man sitting next to the ship. She took a deep breath and stared at him for a moment to see what his intentions were.  
  
"Job, navigator, job call...."  
  
Diandriaa stopped. Job call? She didn't remember sending out any messages for a navigator...  
  
Then she remembered. Bart, on Osiris. It must have been him. Damned Bart, he must have know she would have forgotten to do it, so he must have sent out the transmission for her.  
  
"Hey you," she called out to him, "come on up here..."  
  
She left the hatch open and went to the com. "If you two are awake, meet me in the galley in five minutes." __________________  
  
The sun finally rose, shining brightly in the morning sky. Of course Terry couldn't see it, his eyes were shielded from the brightness. He figured that someone may be awake by now, and was ready to send a message by computer. It wasn't long after this thought when the main hatch to the ship opened, and a figure emerged, calling out to him. It was a woman, though he couldn't make her out too clearly. She requested that he board her ship.  
  
Terry stood up, grabbing his cases and heading to a nearby TPT. It took no time at all for him to be on the ship, in a hallway where he could see the woman who addressed him earlier. She had a com link in her hand, and Terry just assumed that she was delivering a message of some kind to her crew.  
  
He removed his sunglasses, letting his light brown eyes adjust to the light inside the ship. Turning toward the woman, he said, "Well, I thank you for allowing me onboard. My name is Terry Yamane, I'm here because I found an ad saying that your crew needed someone with some navigation skills, and I'm interested in taking the job."  
  
He lifted one of his arms to shake her hand, realizing that he held one of his briefcases in each arm. "Well, I would greet you with a proper handshake, but it seems that my hands are full," Terry said. He put the case down, extending his arm to her again. __________________  
  
Diandriaa sleepily raised an eyebrow, and with a grin on her face, shook Terry's hand. Well, so far, he's patient and polite. This guy isn't going to be a problem.  
  
"I'm Diandriaa, you can set your bags there for now" she said, walking towards the room next to where she had laid the girl down in earlier, and pointing it out to him, "this will be your room, and I'll give you a brief tour of the ship after our meeting, please follow me to the galley."  
  
She was aware that a light pink sleeping gown and a dark red robe wasn't exactly the appropriate outfit for her first crew meeting, but she didn't care. She ran her fingers through her burgundy hair and proceeded towards the galley. __________________  
  
"Ah, yes, of course," Terry answered, as he placed his bags on the floor. He followed her to his new room, which seemed quite comfortable. It had more space than his room on the Tigershark; they had so much space for crewmembers there, so all the rooms were small, but fair enough to live in.  
  
Terry was adjusting to the environment of this new ship, it was suitable for him; in fact, in a way it almost felt like home. He also noted that a meeting was coming up, which was good because he needed to catch up with the crew. He hadn't a clue as to what the crew had planned, but he didn't really mind, anything would be fine. He just hoped that they wouldn't get into any serious conflict; since his recent meeting with Mauri, he decided to put the fighting aside and just rest as long as he could.  
  
"Well, this is all very nice. I think my stay here should be a new experience," Terry said, showing off a small smile. It was rare that he would smile for anyone, it was merely a sign of trust, and he felt that he trust this new crew. He had to, else there would really be no point in staying with them. __________________  
  
Even as Diandriaa barged out of her room in a sleepy huff, Nadia felt a glow of activity liven the ship's inhabitants. The girl had managed to stay out of sight while the stranger was inducted with somewhat less drama than herself and Halden. Speaking of whom, she had half a mind to run and drag him up to the galley so they could meet the new stranger.  
  
Nadia's curiosity was weakening her resolve to stay silent and relatively out of the way. But her grade of professionalism held up, and she was in the galley with a calm exterior. Meanwhile, even the least sensitive of telepaths could feel the interest like small electric zaps on the air. She didn't need her mental abilities to know that this would be a meeting to consider staying on board the Emerald Queen. Otherwise, Nadia would have gone by now, in search of another ship and paid for the services offered by the captain of the ship.  
  
Allowing Diandriaa a moment to introduce herself and all of the proper pleasantries, the girl waited in relative silence, her mind nosing about in the essences of welcome and politeness. Any exterior feelings, she stayed away from, not at all interested in motives. She was simply bordering on impatient and following the gist of the conversation. __________________  
  
Halden stopped from his training when he heard commotion outside the rec- area. He decided it was time for a break anyway and put back on his black shirt and equipped the sheath to his back and sheathed his sword. Stepping outside the room he saw Nadia heading towards the Galley and decided to follow her. On his way there he noticed Diandriaa showing some guy around and wondered who he was. When he got to the galley he took a seat next to Nadia.  
  
"So what's all this about and who is that guy?" Halden asked Nadia with a sly grin. __________________  
  
Terry followed Diandriaa back to the galley after looking through his quarters. There were two more people there, obviously the remaining crewmates who Terry had yet to meet. They had gathered for the meeting, which was to take place at any moment.  
  
Of the two new members there was a young male, he looked as if he had been in some sort of fight recently, as there were some bruises on him. With him stood another woman, who in a way reminded him of Mauri, though they were two completely different people.  
  
Terry felt it necessary to introduce himself to them, seeing as how he was the newest member aboard the ship, but it seemed that Diandriaa may have been ready to start with the meeting, so he would wait until afterwards. 


	2. Family, Like it or Not

Diandriaa hopped up on the counter, crossed her legs and looked at the motley threesome and took a deep breath.

"Great, all three of you are here. Now, before I start making offers and assigning duties, I want you to know a little about me, the ship and some rules I think are important.

My name is Diandriaa. I've been on this ship since it came off the assembly line when I was 17. I'm 31, I was born on or around Anuurn, and I lost my parents when I was 2 on Satyana. To make this clear, I lost them or rather, they lost me. I don't know where they are; the only thing I know is that they had another kid.

Anyway, I inherited this ship from my boyfriend when he died five years ago. She has been smooth sailing, with hardly a problem. As long as she's maintained properly, she'll stay that way. You love the Queen, she loves you, it's that simple.

Now, before you three introduce yourselves, I'm going to lay out some rules. I'm not a bitch, a dictator or a tyrant, but if I feel I'm being made to be a fool and my rules aren't being followed, I can turn into one.

First thing is, you do your job. That's what you're getting paid for, that's why you have a place to sleep and free ride around the universe.

Second thing, no one has seniority above anyone else on this ship, except me. No one will be telling anyone else how to do their job.

Third, don't lie to me, ever. I'm psychic, and I know when someone isn't being honest with me. Tell me the truth, and there won't be a problem. I'm not a scary person, I accept that people make mistakes, but the only thing that pisses me off is when I'm lied to about it. That being said, take responsibility for your actions. I don't wanna hear "I didn't get enough sleep" or "I was distracted" or "it wasn't my fault, it was so and so and such and such" I can't stand that. However, there are some things none of us have any control over, and I do know the difference.

I don't have a problem with crew romances, but I do ask you to seriously think about what you'll be getting yourself into. If either of you get involved, and it ends badly for some reason and it turns into an "its either him or me cause I can't do my job with them around" both of you will leave. I don't recommend it, but I don't have any control of anyone's feelings.

You are free to come and go as you please. If we land somewhere, just make sure your duties are completed first. For instance, if we are on our way to some place like Ananda, and we get hit by an asteroid or something, and the med bay gets knocked to shit, before you walk off the ship, make sure its cleaned up. Other than that, I could give a damn. Just let me know where you're going in case I need to reach you.

All the food on this ship is for everyone. If there is anything you want for yourself, buy it with your own deccas and either label it, or keep it in your room. All rooms have a miniature refrigeration unit for your own personal use.

I have no objections to smoking or drinking in your own room, as long as it doesn't interfere with your duties.

Well, like I said, this isn't Nazi Germany here. All decisions made will be made by us together, as a team or a family if you will. If you have a problem with anything, you come to me and we will work it out together. If you have a problem and need to be somewhere, you let me know. If you see a job on the wire that you think we could do, let me know.

Well, that's all I have for right now. I've never had a crew before, so you'll probably find me more of a fun, yet realistic big sister than a stern, by the book captain. If you have any other questions, go ahead and ask me after you have all introduced yourselves.

Now regarding that, one at a time, I want you to tell me your name, a little about your background, and what all your skills are. I'll then assign jobs, show you to your new rooms and we can get some rest that I'm sure our beat up friend here probably needs, then I'll go over with you, one by one, your stations and what I expect.

Now, who's first?"

As Diandriaa waited for one of them to stand up and say something, she realized something. She came to Earth to visit Palantir's memorial site, and ended up possibly getting a crew in less than 24 hours. "How the hell did that happen?" she asked herself.

-------------------------------

"Ok, I guess I'll be next," Terry said, moving up a little.

"My name is Terry Yamane, I'm 22 years old and I was born here on Earth, though I have no clear memory of my childhood. At 15 I joined a small organization of smugglers, at the time I had no home, so they took me in. After a short battle on our base, all of my crew had been taken into captivity, except for me and Mauri, who I'll tell you about in a moment."

"Ever since then I've been searching for them, trying to figure out what happened. Recently I was aboard a ship called The Tigershark, a small trading vessel. I was in charge of navigation and also the lead fighter pilot. We came to Earth for the captain's own reasons, but the whole crew got themselves into trouble and the captain fell into a coma or trance or something, no one knows how. Ever since I joined them they always got into some kind of danger, which I couldn't bear, seeing as how I've tried to give up on violence for the time being, and so I decided to leave the ship."

"Recently I met up with Mauri Mikura, a friend from my old smuggling crew. She was the leader's younger sister, and after five years she told me what happened the day of the attack. Afterwards I announced my departure to the crew of The Tigershark, and ended up here."

Terry stopped, noticing that he had just told them the story of his life, rather than introduce himself. "I guess I'll stop there, I said too much."

"Well anyway, as far as what I can do, I'm good at navigations and I know my way around small ships. I've been learning a few med skills, though its not really something you could count on me doing often. I have some skills in martial arts and I can use a gun, though I prefer not to use either unless absolutely necessary, but that's not important. But anyway, I think I'm gonna enjoy staying with all of you. So that's it for me."

-------------------------------

Grinning and already loving the way their crew was working, Nadia took the stage, none too bashful. Giving each a grand look and a smile to pair with it, the young woman cleared her throat and began.

"Well, I'm not exactly sure what to say, so I'll model my introduction after Terry's. My name is Nadia Asiro. My past is quite uneventful, though. I'm 17 and I was born on a company ship, which was going across galaxy. I lived my entire life on that ship, though I've been to most every space station and outpost there is. The company recently went bankrupt and the crew was let out with compensations. My parents died when I was very young, too young to remember, I'm afraid. They say my mother died in childbirth, my father of cancer.

As for myself, I'm a med specialist, and that's about the only thing I do. I have sarafin, but I personally don't care to fight... but I will, most certainly if worse comes to worse."

Her face was extremely expressional, smiling in the good news, frowning at the bad, and perfectly serious in explaining herself.

After her introduction, Nadia gave Diandriaa one more big grin and added," I also think that this is going to be the start of something beautiful," giving a big wink with the remark.

-------------------------------

The start of something beautiful?

"Okay," Diandriaa thought, "if that's what she thinks, then maybe she's right."

So far, Terry and Nadia sounded like they were going to work out fine. As Nadia gave her a wink and sat back down, Diandriaa turned and looked at the one she assumed was Halden.

"Well, its your turn Skippy," she stated, tilting her head to him, "I'm ready whenever you are."

-------------------------------

Halden looked around at the group.

"I guess it is my turn then," he said. "My name's Halden. I'm 30 years old or so I think. I don't know much about my past. Every once in a while something will come to me, but not often. What I do know is that I can fly a fighter, use a sword, and repair some stuff. I woke up a couple days ago at a docking area here on Earth. I had gotten beat up real bad, and couldn't remember anything and this young lady right here had helped me." He pointed to Diandriaa. "So I guess I owe her, a lot. Anyway, enough about me, let's get started on what we need to do."

Halden itched at the beard growing around his face and gave a sly grin to the rest of the group.

-------------------------------

Diandriaa smirked. "Well," she thought, "that was straight and to the point."

"Okay," she replied as Halden finished, "I'm going to start off with Nadia. You're going to be the ship med specialist. Your room will be right where I left you, and your "office" is right next door to that. Once you get some more rest and you feel 100 percent, you're going to want to get in there, familiarize yourself with everything and you may want to clean it out a bit, it hasn't been used in about 5 years and its probably pretty dusty."

"Terry, you're the ships navigations officer. I may need you to double as a gunner if we come under fire, which is never very often, and I'm too preoccupied trying to maneuver the ship. You can also be Nadia's back in case she needs any extra help for any reason. After you settle yourself in, get something to eat and get some rest, you and I will go into the cockpit and I'll get you registered into the computer system and you can familiarize yourself with the system. Your room will be where I pointed out to you, its right between the med bay and the rec room."

"Halden, you're going to be the maintenance engineer. You're going to make sure my engines are running smoothly, my cooling units are working properly, etc. I'm not much for giving orders, but in your case, I'm going to. Get some rest. You had a very bad night and I know you're bruised and tired. You're room is right next-door to the galley here. Once you have done that, you and I will go through the engine room and I'll show you where everything on the ship is."

"We will be here on Earth for at least three days, so that should give all of you enough time to get yourself settled in and comfortable with the ship. In two days, I'm going to be visiting the memorial site for my boyfriend, who was the original owner of this ship. She was built specifically to his tastes, and you'll find that she is probably unlike any Pegasus class ship you have ever been in. She has beds in the rooms, not cots. Each room also has a computer built into the wall so that you can do whatever it is that you do, search Earth databases, whatever. There are also shelves for your books or whatever. There are also dressers for your clothes and a desk. You will also each have your own private bathroom, which should make Nadia happy. The galley is always fully stocked, and like I said before, your rooms will have a miniature refrigeration unit for your own, personal use.

As I was saying, I'll be going to visit his memorial in two days, his name was Palantir. You don't have to come with me, but if you wish to pay your respects, you're more than welcome to come with me. He was killed five years ago after a fight where he was stabbed...."

She looked at Halden as she said that, remembering what she told him earlier.

"He thought he was invincible. Instead of waiting and getting the proper medical care, he stumbled back to the ship and eventually bled to death before anything could be done for him. He wasn't invincible; he was being macho and proud. I won't have that happen again. I will not get myself attached to any of you, and then have you turn around and do something like that. Don't make me love you then turn around and lose you due to your pride."

"That being said, welcome aboard," she said, sliding off the counter and grabbing an apple out of the fridge, "I'm going to go lay back down for a couple of hours, but before I do, does anyone have any questions?"

-------------------------------

"I don't have any questions at the moment, but just to let you know ahead of time, after I eat, sleep, and get acquainted with this ship's system, I'm gonna head out for a while. Just to visit a few people before we take off."

Terry left for his room for some much needed sleep. He had stayed awake for two days straight, something that he usually wouldn't plan on doing, but often happened. Lying on the bed, he thought about his last statement, and rather than visit the crew of The Tigershark, he would just leave them a message. They probably weren't on the ship anyway. As for Mauri, he promised her that he would talk to her once more before he left Earth.

Pulling out his laptop, he opened it up and turned it on, instantly bringing up some messaging software. He was too tired to speak it, so he used the option to type it.

To the crew of The Tigershark -

I don't really know how to do this; I'm not so great when it comes to goodbyes. But I will say this - I really enjoyed my time with you all, I wish all of you the best of luck wherever you go. As for me, I am now aboard the Emerald Queen, we will be leaving Earth in a few days. I do not have time to visit, which is why I took the time to send this to you. Whether or not I will see you once more, I don't know. I appreciate all that you have done for me, and I am sure we will meet again sometime.

Also, take care of the captain, make sure he stays alive.

There is nothing more to say, so this is goodbye.

He didn't bother to put his name on it, they would know who it was from, seeing as how he was the only one who left.

"That should do it. They wont miss me anyway," Terry says, his words turning into a whisper. "Hopefully I'll get enough sleep in before I'm needed for anything."

-------------------------------

The news of the ship's rather luxurious accommodations was music to her ears. To get to a relatively decent computer back on the company ship, you had to go to the common's area, and then you had to wait your turn if any of the fifteen other crew members were on it. And a private bathroom? There wasn't anything she would appreciate more. Showers, without time limits? Complete heaven! Though, Nadia doubted she'd stay any longer than ten minutes. Maybe fifteen, just today, she conceded.

There weren't any questions, and as most everyone went on their way, the girl figured she'd wait until later in the day to find out more about her new comrades. Slipping into the bathroom and turning the heat up until it was nearly scalding and pouring mist from the showering compartment, she undressed and stuck her jumpsuit into the auto-launder. A convenient invention in the more modern ships. Slipping into the shower and indulging in fifteen minutes of pure ecstasy, Nadia went over the meeting.

Diandriaa had seemed like a good, casual leader, somewhat like her beloved Captain Baccardi. But her old crew had all found jobs before they landed. Only Nadia chose to freelance it. Then there was Terry. He was more open, emotionally, Nadia thought. Or something like that. She liked him easily, however, it was certainly not romantic. He just seemed a lot like Bo, wise, and kind hearted, though Bo was a giant in comparison to anyone she knew. And Halden. Rough around the edges, that one certainly was. And cocky too, as Diandriaa subtly pointed out. Laughing softly, she couldn't really think of anyone in her old crew that had been like him. Thirty and entirely unreadable... Without telepathy, that is. Still, the girl had felt gypped that she hadn't been given any credit in helping him. Then again, Diandriaa had actually fought on his behalf.

A unique crew, with two categories, the semi-pacifists and the business-like fighters. Well, that would be too much of a generalization, but the gist of it was that there were some more willing to fight than others. Nadia half-wondered why Terry didn't care for violence. For her, it was painfully obvious. There was no sense in working to heal if you fought to hurt. Hypocrisy should've been named one of the seven deadly sins, according to the young redhead.

Wondering what being the baby of the crew would be like, she stepped out of the shower into a dense mist and dried off. Searching the laundering unit though the fog, Nadia wasn't surprised to see it was still going. Wrapping in a towel and padding softly on bare feet to her duffel, she found another set of clothes, not her jumpsuit but comfortable Earth clothes. Baggy, plaid green night pants and a comfortable black tank top were he unofficial cleaning clothes. And this girl didn't intend on going out until afternoon to find a suitable plant for space.

The cold metal panel flooring outside of her room was a shock, and she tiptoed into the med bay. Sitting up on one of the counters, Nadia surveyed her turf. My own med bay, and me, Med Specialist. Wrinkling her nose in pleasure and grinning, she set to the task.

Cabinets lined the walls, a large central stainless steel table that could double as a surface for materials such as stationery and paperwork, or as an expansive operating table. The wall on which there were no cabinets, the south wall, was the door. The cabinets themselves hosted a variety of things, however, some were empty, especially the ones on the back wall. Several sinks, one on each wall, were stationed on the flat countertops. There was some chemistry equipment on the cabinets in the far right cabinets and mostly bandages, hypodermic needles, and pain killing pharmaceuticals. There were stimpacks as well, and some surgical equipment, but mostly archaic, and entirely manual. There were some things she'd have to save up for.

Organizing her equipment, she stationed all pharmaceuticals on the back wall. There would be additions before long and she would be well stocked. On the left wall at the upper end, she set up her surgical supplies, all tools and the needles. Bandages and topical anesthetic were closest to the door. On the right, a little tidying up with the chemistry equipment, and then Nadia set to sterilizing the room. The surgical equipment had been dutifully encased in vacuum trays and wouldn't require the duty unless opened and used.

A panel closest to the door had several settings, mostly temperature control, humidity control, lights control, including the high voltage surgery lamp, and finally the sterilizer. This was usually done just before an operation, something to prep the room, but it was also an effective to give the room a little cleanup. Blasts of high temperature steam would scour the surfaces, lifting off old dust into the air. The room would vacuum, momentarily, sucking out all old air then, decontaminating it as well, and shoot it back into the room. Bloody messes, or spilt creams and such would have to be cleaned by hand, but the room was in a decent, if unused state.

Activating the cleanup sequence and stepping out of the room, the clear plas-glas panel slid shut in front of Nadia, sealing of the med bay. Whistling, she wandered back into the galley, suddenly getting the munchies and hunting for food.

-------------------------------

"Sure Terry, no problem," Diandriaa said, walking out of the galley, "just remind me to give you a wrist receiver so I can contact you, in fact, everyone remind me, or I'll forget."

Diandriaa couldn't believe this was all happening. She never had a crew before, even when it was just she and Palantir. Now, there were three other people there beside herself. She frowned as the door to her room opened and she walked in, briefly glancing behind her long enough to see an obviously happy Nadia going into her room.

She read Nadia for a moment. The girl seemed to be deprived of privacy for a long time, and the look on her face when she announced the private bathrooms made Diandriaa feel good. And considering the girl was still underage, she was Diandriaa's responsibility, though Nadia did look like she could take care of herself.

Then there was Terry. Very polite, very respectful and he looked very trustworthy and reliable. The guy didn't look like he had a dishonest bone in his body.

And she liked how appreciative Halden was. She also felt bad that he didn't know what happened to him. She saw nothing but blank images when she looked at him, and figured that no matter how bad she felt about not knowing even her own last name, this guy had to feel ten times worse.

She sat down at the desk and turned the computer monitor in the wall on. "Access crew database," she ordered, rubbing her eyes. She wanted to at least get their names in the computer, just in case there were any issues later.

"Please give password."

"Bite Me."

"Thank you. Welcome Diandriaa. What can I help you with?"

"Update crew registry."

She then proceeded:

"Captain Diandriaa Fairbanks, ship pilot and gunner."

(the ship computer required her to enter a last name, and since she didn't know hers, she used Palantir's)

"Terry Yamane, ship navigation officer and back up gunner"

"Nadia Asiro, ship medical officer."

"Halden..."

She felt stupid doing this, but she merely shrugged her shoulders. In the event Halden remembered his last name, she could always change it."

"Halden Anon, ship mechanic and maintenance engineer."

Diandriaa saved the new information, and crawled back into bed. Hopefully, another two hours of sleep would make her feel better.

-------------------------------

Diandriaa dragged herself out of her bed a few hours later, amazed that she slipped in 4 more hours of sleep. She didn't quite remember what she dreamt of, she just remembered seeing herself in the arms of a big Hani man who was saying "If you ever want to see her alive again, leave this planet now, and stay out of our affairs."

She must have been having a flashback from when she was separated from her parents. She took a deep breath as she stumbled into the bathroom.

After taking a quick shower, she slipped into a pair of black sweat pants and a white halter-top, perfectly showing off her slender, hourglass figure.

She then proceeded to the galley where she got herself a bottle of an energy drink, and downed it quickly. Grabbing the com link, she announced, "Okay, I'm awake, anyone wanting to get their tour of the ship and get familiar with their stations, and you're ready, meet me in the galley."

She set the comm link back, and sat down, snacking on some crackers while she waited.

-------------------------------

A voice bleated over the comm, causing the fiery haired girl to sit up with a start. She was folded over the computer, her forehead had been resting heavily on the keep board, face down, and now her face bared marks from the keys. Even the raised letters were indented in her skin. An hour or so ago she had been researching several old Earth methods for the common cold and must have just lost interest. Ha, chicken noodle soup. What a joke. Though there had been some possible reasons why the remedy was popular, not one of them was related to getting rid of the virus itself.

Rubbing the spot hurriedly, Nadia caught the last of Diandriaa's message and stumbled wearily into the galley, where she had been several hours ago looking for a meal. A plum had been all she had wanted, and they were ripe with pink flesh that was reminiscent in flavor and looks to watermelon.

The first in there, Nadia waved to the woman and spoke. "I want to have a look at Halden's wounds again. I'm afraid his scalp might actually need stitches." Then, a little sheepishly, she added," I didn't exactly look closely back at the docks." That had been one of the most embarrassing moments in her life. Other than Bo's attempt at explaining puberty and sex. That took the trophy.

Slouching into a chair, she waited as well, hopeful that the rest would show up so she could give the beat up man another once over and deal with him sober this time.

-------------------------------

Terry woke up on the floor, not at all surprised how he got there. He stood, noticing that he left his laptop on as he slept. There was a repetitive beeping noise, indicating that a message had been sent. It was from Mauri; just a short note telling him not to visit her at the bar, she was leaving for Ananda.

Diandriaa made an announcement stating that she was ready to show everyone around the ship. "I'll be there in a minute," Terry says, though he knew that no one could hear him. He shut off his laptop, placing it in its bag. Looking over at the wall, he remembered about the computer built into the room, and decided that his needed a rest. He would deal with it later, but for now, it was time view the ship.

Terry left his room, straight for the galley. For a moment he ignored the fact that Nadia and Diandriaa were also there, but only because he needed to grab something to eat. He opened the fridge, but found nothing in particular that caught his eye. On the counter there were a few muffins, two of which he took and bit into the one in his right hand.

"Ok, I'm ready," Terry said, looking over at the two women. "Also, I've changed my mind. I wont be leaving after all."

-------------------------------

Meanwhile, Down on Earth....

Hunter put his head in his heads and his buddy, Fraison, laughed, rubbing the spot on the back of his head where the woman punched him the night before. The tall, heavyset man whipped around and sneered at Fraison. "I don't know why you're laughing," he snapped, "no man I know lets a woman sneak up behind him and knock him cold. You soft or something?"

"How did you know what happened," Hunter asked meekly. DeVita raised his eyebrow. "I know everything, I told you that before," he replied, fingering the gun in his holster, "Nothing gets by me. I know what all my men are up to, but considering you let some broad get the better of ya, I hesitate to call you men."

"If I would have heard her..." Fraison started to say. DeVita interrupted him.

"You shouldn't have been there in the first place," he shouted, "I sent you guys out to run the scams and sell the Flash, not jump two bit winos for a few deccas. As far as I'm concerned, you both got what you had coming to you, but considering her threat, I can't afford to have your corpses leading back to me..."

"Yes sir," both men mumbled as Fraison gave Hunter an accusatory glance.

"When you see her again, take care of her like that men you're supposed to be, or don't bother coming back at all," DeVita snapped, buttoning his coat, "I don't want pussies in my organization. Are we clear?"

Hunter nodded as Fraison mumbled another "Yes sir." to his boss.

-------------------------------

"I think that's a good idea Nadia," Diandriaa replied, as Nadia sat down at the table, "go ahead and go to the med bay, and I'll send call Halden in there, if he's not in there in about 15 minutes, then go ahead and knock on his door and wake him up long enough to fix up his head...Ah hi Terry, did you get some sleep? Ready to head over to the cock pit, I'll show you your station and get you logged in and whatnot, follow me."

She then followed Terry's example, grabbed a muffin and headed out of the galley and towards the cockpit. She then made a mental note to get a double batch of muffins, as it seemed that they were just as popular with her crew as they were with her.

Just outside the door of the cockpit, Diandriaa picked up the comm link. "Mister Halden," she announced, "your presence is requested in the med bay. If you are awake, please make your way there post hast..."

And feeling particularly goofy, she added, "At the sound of the tone, the time will be 10:05 AM, have a nice day."

-------------------------------

Time passed, far longer than she had intended, but she was deeply entertained by the chemistry equipment and almost an hour passed before Nadia recalled her original purpose. Of course, after that realization, Nadia intended to ask if Diandriaa had a clock to post on the wall, for a reminder of duty, as well as time itself.

Strolling out of her beloved medical bay and off to Halden's quarters a short distance down the hall, she lightly. "Halden, I want to have a look at you, maybe see if you stuck around with the medics long enough to get your head stitched up... Halden?" A curious look was cast at the door. Soon she was just going to waltz right in, welcome or not.

-------------------------------

Diandriaa opened the door to the cockpit and walked down the two steps, hoping Terry was right behind her. "Well, this is it," she announced proudly, waving her arm around like a showgirl, "the entire nerve center of the ship."

The cockpit was in the shape of a triangle, but the console was separated into three stations, the center for the pilot, the navigations station was to the right of the captains chair and to the left was the computer mainframe station, which also doubled as a gunners or co pilots station.

She turned around and looked to see if he was there, before she decided to give any more instructions, so she didn't make herself look like a tittering twit.

-------------------------------

Huffing with impatience, Nadia tapped the pad on the right-hand side of the door and slipped inside before it was halfway open. A lovely rant had been prepared for Halden's lack of responsibility towards his health, but Nadia was unpleasantly surprised to see the older man slumped over his bed, blood trickling slowly from the opened head wound. A bottle of alcohol and toilet paper gave away the cause. "What sort of idiot are you? Trying to take care of that when you've got a fully certified medic on board!" As she ranted, she re-capped the bottle and tossed the tissue in a trash bin.

After trying to resettle him on the bed and prop his head up, she jogged back to the med bay and shuffled through her newly organized cabinets for a bandage and gauze. Once in the room and crouched beside his bed, Nadia examined the wound. It was a pretty little gash, starting just behind his left ear and running almost to the base of his skull. The scalp was not entirely separated though, and the bone beneath wasn't exposed. But the cut was jagged, not a knife, maybe shrapnel or garbage he fell on in the fight. Or even from before the fight.

Still, with the cut untended, it looked as if it could be weeks old. But there wasn't any sign of scar tissue forming. Rather than try to guess when it happened, Nadia swept back her lengthy reddish hair and pulled an elastic from a pocket in her jumpsuit. Tying the mane of hair away, she set to work.

The med kit offered the basics, rinsing solution to remove grains of dirt that might allow infection into a wound. Disinfectant and a topical anesthetic, one to remove bacteria and other harmful materials and the other to ease pain in the area. There were also breathable bandages, a stitching set, the makings of a splint, etc. Most of the materials were for cuts and abrasions, however.

There were bits of tissue stuck in the wound, caught by coagulated blood. Rinsing wouldn't do the trick. Seeing as how the man was already unconscious, Nadia chose against wasting the cream to ease any pain. If he woke up, he'd just have to deal with it. After all, if he'd come to her in the first place, this wouldn't have happened. Making another run back into the medical bay, she grabbed a tray of sterilized medical tools and a pair of gloves.

Once again, kneeling beside him, she popped the vacuum lid off of the tray and chose a pair of hooked tweezers. The tips were bent about and inched from the end so that the length of the tool didn't catch on any tissue. Removing the bits of paper and some scabs that were still fresh and sticky took her about five minutes. The wound had to be clean and unscabbed if she was going to seal him up. Applying the anti-septic was a fast job as well, taking little finesse. After this, Nadia pulled out a length of stitching thread and a curved needle. The stitching took another five or ten minutes.

Once finished, and thoroughly disgruntled, Nadia packed up her med kit and the tray, leaving out bandages, gauze and the topical cream. Spreading a bit over the closed wound, she patched it up with bandages and was done. Huffing again, and sitting back, she noted that her feet had gone to sleep while she crouched.

The unpleasant prickle as her nerves snapped awake didn't add to her mood. Rolling Halden back onto his back, she lugged all of her equipment back into the med bay. Nadia took her time, and sat up on the counter to relieve her furiously prickling feet. What a day, already. She'd check on him in an hour or two, probably to provide room service.

-------------------------------

Terry followed Diandriaa to the main control room. Nadia went toward Halden's room, as it seemed that he didn't respond to Dian's call. The main room was well equipped, there were three stations, each one specified by the type of control panels there. Anyone could easily get comfortable in this.

"Well, this is the workplace...so did you need me to start on anything right now?" Terry asked, facing his captain. "Or did you have something else planned?"

-------------------------------

Hopping off the table where she'd settled to massage her feet, Nadia moved to the control panel on the wall to the side of the door. Well aware that Dian was going through the basics of the Emerald Queen's piloting station with Terry, she flipped the comm to the cockpit. "Just to let you know, our man Halden passed out awhile ago. I doubt it was a concussion. Most probably blood loss making him a bit weak. Just giving you the okay." Nadia didn't expect a response and felt somewhat sheepish for butting in, but the captain needed to know this sort of thing.

Exiting the clean white med bay and traipsing into Halden's room once more, she found the man groggy, but awake. "Why the hell does my head feel like I've been bashing it against a rock for the past hour?" His voice was tired and thick, strained just a bit because of what must have felt like a great stinging through his left scalp. "That would be because you tried to clean it yourself... Unsuccessfully," she added in a gently remonstrative tone, every bit the caring medic she was. "I'm going to get you some juice though, and Kylemol, and you'll drink every bit of it. I don't know how much blood you've lost between last night in the fight and today, but it seems to be more than I estimated."

Once Nadia was back with the pain reliever, juice and several muffins, the captain's favorite, and now the crew's as well, she set them before him and watched Halden dutifully consume the Kylemol and whole cup of juice. "Some food wouldn't hurt you either," and with that, Nadia left for the galley.

A little searching and she found her lunch, materials to make a lovely ham and cheese sandwich. "Gourmet cookin'!"

-------------------------------

Diandriaa smiled at Terry's obvious eagerness for the job. "Just go ahead and have a seat, get a feel for the station," she replied, "then just go ahead and get comfortable the computer. You'll see a monitor right in front of you, most of what you'll be doing is by touch screen and voice control. Right now, just flip on the monitor and touch the button that says New Crew Member, and it'll give you an option for what your job will be. Then just follow the prompts. It will have you create a password, scan for your fingerprint, and do a voice analysis. I'm going to go check on Nadia and Halden, and I'll be right back. If you get stuck on something, just call me over the COM. The button is on the panel on the right hand side of the monitor."

It was then that she heard Nadia's announcement over the PA. "Sheesh," she grimaced, as she jumped the steps and headed quickly over to the med bay.

They weren't there. "Hmm," she mumbled, "I hope everything is okay."

She then walked over to Halden's quarters just in time to see Nadia returning from the galley with a tray of food and turning to see a prone Halden lying on his bed, bandaged up. "Uhhh," she said, as Nadia approached, "what happened? Is he okay?"

-------------------------------

"Oh, he'll be fine. Just a little weak from not having his head properly taken care of when he had the chance." The man had eaten his muffins as well by now, and eyed Diandriaa seriously from his bed. " Yea well," Halden started, like he was going to make a smart remark, but nothing came to him. Without anything to say, he glanced at the floor and bit into his muffin again. "That's right, just keep eating." Leading Dian out of the room, she shut Halden's door from the panel beside it.

"I don't know if he's superstitious about medics, or just thinks himself invincible, but he likes to do things his way too much." Peering at the captain with a searching look, she added," Hope we're not making too much trouble to early. You've prob'ly got a lot to work out between Terry and Halden." Nadia liked to think that she was the least of the woman's problems, though it could possibly be untrue. After all, Nadia was the youngest of them all, underage by law, but over looked by and because of government bureaucracy. Still, as independent and professional as she was usually, she overlooked those facts.

-------------------------------

"Go easy on him," Diandriaa replied, "its apparent that this guy has been on his own for far too long. I don't think he's had to rely on anyone but himself. No one to take care of him, no one to count on, nothing. Looks like he got beat up before we ran into him, and badly that he lost everything. I was on my own from the time I was two until I met up with Palantir when I was seventeen. I wasn't used to having to listen to someone else, take orders, rely on him, nothing. Even when he tried to train me, I resisted because I thought I knew everything and I could learn on my own. It took me awhile, but I got over it. Once Halden has been with us for a while, it will probably be the same way with him.

As for Terry, I don't think there's going to be much to deal with him. You, on the other hand, despite how well you think of yourself, and I'm not saying your wrong, but since you are underage, and I have registered you on the crew, I have to do all this paperwork, making me responsible for you and anything you do until you turn 18. So, you're not exactly going to be easy."

She gave Nadia a smile and a pat on the back as she turned to go back to the cockpit. "You're doing a good job Nadia," she called back to her, "I'll be in the cockpit with Terry if you need anything"

-------------------------------

The point of view presented by the woman was an interesting perspective. One that made a lot of sense. And now she knew why the cut looked like it could possibly be old.

But being told she was more trouble than the rest wasn't exactly what she was hoping. As the captain walked away smiling, Nadia mimicked her, if a bit childishly. "It's not my fault that the stupid government puts it's nose everywhere it's not wanted and insists on knowing and having a hand in everything! If I had my way..." and she went on as she slipped back into her room.

After a while of her little rant at the powers above her, Nadia realized that she'd neglected to ask Dian a very important question. Berating herself, she wandered out of her room and into the galley, which was where she figured the captain might go. " Need to put a tracker on everyone in this ship. Find them more easily like that," she mumbled as she strided into the room.

-------------------------------

Clomping up to the cockpit half-heartedly, Nadia offered Dian something close to an apology. "I've just got little respect for bureaucratic procedure, that's all." As far as responsibilities went, the tall slender redhead had every intention of taking care of her part of the deal. There would be other duties, other things other than purely medic, but for the time, she had everything covered.

Nadia cast her emerald gaze around, waiting for Diandriaa to start up some long-winded speech like the elder she was. This was something the girl had been acquainted with since birth, regardless of her unique crew's make-up and the lack of parents. It seemed every adult had it in them, and she expected no less from Diandriaa. Perhaps if the girl had chosen to be more aware, as far telepathic sensations went, she might not have expected the most boring. But her levels weren't strong enough, and she not wise enough to continuously tune in.

-------------------------------

Diandriaa raised an eyebrow to the girl as she walked up. The last thing she wanted was a battle of wills, or even a verbal fight with this girl over some thing so petty as a misunderstanding or the fact that, despite Nadia probably not thinking she knew, that the girl started mimicking her when she turned around.

Reminded her a bit of herself actually.

"Pain in the ass government procedures or not, they have a point, its done to protect you, and me, there's nothing against you what so ever," Diandriaa stated, "however, despite what you think, I'm not going to give you some long winded "I'm older than you, I know more" speech, because I hate those. As long as you are on the ship, you don't have to worry about your freedom being restricted or you being held back because of your age. As far as I'm concerned, you're just like anyone else and you don't ever have to worry about me telling you can't do something because of your age. As sad as it is, we both survived without our parents guidance, you're probably just as good if not better than everyone else."

She paused a bit, and sighed. "Nadia," she said, "would you please come with me when I visit Palantir? It would mean a lot to me."

-------------------------------

The captain hit on a few points that surprised the girl, particularly that she believed not having parents gave her some sort of insight into the world, and that she didn't do "holier than thou" speeches. Still, as unusual as it was, Nadia found herself regarding her future much more pleasantly than she had a moment ago.

Blinking in surprise at Dian's finish, she nodded somewhat dumbly. Recovering not a second later, she added," Sure, I'd be glad to. From what you've said about him, he must have been a really great guy." Nadia wasn't sure what Diandriaa meant by it, but in a way, the girl took it as an allowance, perhaps, into her personal life, to be more than just a medic. And now that she thought about it, this made her Diandriaa's foster daughter. Sort of. She mentally took a step back, aware that this new perspective was one to get used to.

-------------------------------

"Alright, I'll get it all done now," Terry said to Diandriaa. He turns on the monitor and begins the setup. He felt it necessary to get it all over with now, putting things off for a later time wasn't his style. Before he started, Nadia made an announcement, stating that Halden had passed out. Diandriaa left to check in on the two of them.

"Hope that guy is alright...ok, lets start this thing up," Terry says to himself.

"Welcome. Please speak your name, and enter job profession."

"Terry Yamane," he answers, waiting for the system to recognize his voice. A short list came up for jobs, and he hit the button for navigation.

"Thank you. Please place index finger on the screen for fingerprint scanning."

He placed his finger on there, and the screen lit up, followed by a white line crossing the screen back and forth a few times.

"Please enter personal password."

"Hm... Mouse," Terry said. He couldn't think of anything unique, and the word 'mouse' was the first thing to come to mind. The computer began to configure everything he entered in, finishing with "New member setup complete." A list of options arose on the monitor, but Terry would just wait until Dian was ready to leave before doing anything.

He retreated to the galley, hoping to get another muffin and a glass of juice. Nadia and Diandriaa weren't too far off, he could hear them talking about Halden, before they passed him by heading for the cockpit. There was nothing more to do, so he retreated to his room, and sat in front of the computer, looking for something interesting on the universal net.

-------------------------------

Diandriaa smiled at Nadia. "He was," she replied, "thanks. I just didn't want to go alone. She saw Terry leave the cockpit and walk by them. "Must have got into the system with no problem," she thought, smiling again. He did know his business, she was positive about that now. She left Nadia to go check on Halden herself because she had a bad feeling something was wrong.

She hit the keypad and walked into the room as the door opened and looked at the prone figure on the bed. Halden was breathing, but he looked very pale and she noticed a small amount of blood trickling from his head wound and what she knew was vomit on the blanket. She knew Nadia did a good job taking care of him, but he looked like he was beyond her help.

She pushed the button on the com. "Terry, I need you to contact the dock and send an ambulance crew to the ship, Halden is unconscious and he needs to be in the hospital. Nadia, come to Halden's room and help me get him cleaned up."

She released the button and went to turn back to the man, when she remembered something. "Oh and Terry," she added, pushing the button again "tell them to make sure they provide restraints, so he doesn't try to escape again. Actually, never mind, I'll call them."

-------------------------------

Her temper flared at the sight of the young mechanic in his ill state. "Dammit, he should have gone to the fucking hospital. The idiot has a concussion and I just don't have the resources to deal with this now." The man had been on his side, facing the wall for treatment of the long wound. This was fortunate enough for him, or he might've suffocated in his own vomit. She now sat the man up, trying to wake him from his pained sleep. The vomit mess could wait for later. The thought of administering a stimpack to the man crossed her mind, but she dismissed the idea and continued her attempt to awake the older male.

It took a minute or so before she had him in a semi-conscious world, and only a few more minutes before the ambulance arrived. She told them all she knew, and Halden struggled weakly when placed in their care. He wasn't more than half awake when the ambulance left in a whirl.

At the end, Nadia looked to the captain, a little shaky but no worse for wear. "Arrogant idiot," she muttered under her breath and retreated to her room. A little vow to keep a closer eye on patients was made as she slipped out of her clothes and into a steaming shower. Dian would sort out the whole employment deal. They would be land-side a few more days, Palantir's memorial visit was soon, and just some errands to run between then and the present moment. Just an hour longer in the shower and my nerves will be as cushy as ever.

-------------------------------

"Ok, consider it done," Terry replied to Dian's demands. He notified the hospital, explaining to them about Halden's status, and about the restraints to keep him from getting away again. When they arrived, he stepped outside to make sure they took him in without a fight. He waited there, ready to catch him if necessary. Nadia brought him out, told them of Halden's wounds, and then returned to the ship. She seemed to be angry, so rather than say a simple 'hello', or anything at all, Terry turned and walked away.

I guess a short walk wont hurt. I don't think Diandriaa will mind. He hoped that she wouldn't, he wasn't going anywhere specific. Terry's venture outside was short-lived; walking around alone would be pretty boring. He re-entered the ship, heading for the galley.

Halden was gone, and probably for good. His injuries were terrible; it was really a miracle that he survived at all. His departure left Terry as the only male on the ship. This wasn't a problem, but he was outnumbered, and making them mad would be a bad idea, as there was no one else there to back him up. Eating a muffin got his mind off of these things. Diandriaa would probably hire another person to take Halden's place anyway.

Terry went to his room, pulling out a small, portable gaming system that Mauri gave him a few years ago. It was a popular electronic device on Earth, and in his younger days he yearned for one. But now it was aging, there were probably some better ones around. He took it to the cockpit with him, playing it while waiting for his next job.

-------------------------------

Terry had already finished calling the dock for the ambulance, apparently before she told him never mind, because they were there awfully fast before she got a chance to get on the comm. She wasn't even mad about that, in fact, that made her grin.

You gotta love a guy who can do what he's asked a split second after you request it. Terry was a no nonsense kind of guy.

And Nadia, that girl took her job seriously. She wouldn't be foaming at the mouth if she didn't care about Halden's well being.

Poor Halden. She hated meeting people and having things like that happen to them. She hoped he would be okay. She would probably have Nadia call the hospital to check up on him before they left the planet. The doctor that accompanied the paramedics said they would have to run a brain scan and a CAT scan to his skull to make sure he wasn't bleeding out into his brain.

That made Diandriaa shudder. She went into the cockpit and went to see what was new on StarCast 9 while she waited for Nadia to get out of the shower, so she could have her register herself into the ships medical computer system. With interest, she started reading the story about the kid on Osiris that ate his sister...

She wondered what got into people sometimes. She got up, walked into her cabin, grabbing a hair clip off the headboard, and put her hair up. She suddenly realized she hadn't done much exercise lately, and decided to go for a jog.

"Terry, I don't have much for you to do right now, but the navigation system has practice software if you get too bored, or if you feel you need to refresh," she announced on the com link, "and Nadia, I'll get you into the system as soon as I get back, I'm going for a jog."

With that, she went into the airlock, opened the ramp, hopped off the ship and started her jog around the docks.

-------------------------------

Xander was walking down the docks when he saw a girl in the distance. She was jogging his way. Xander decided to walk towards her and see what she was here on the small planet of earth. Ten minutes later Xander was not far from her. Xander could tell that she was either Terran or Valertrez. "What is your name?" Xander asked this girl that was running towards him.

-------------------------------

Diandriaa stopped and blinked at the man. "This guy has nerves the size of bullets," she thought snidely to herself, looking him up and down. She was about to tell him, when she remembered the events of the other night, with the two jerks who attacked Halden and how the cops questioned her about it. Not knowing if this guy was a cop following up on that case, or one of the scumbag's buddies looking for retribution, she placed her hand on her hip, ready to pull out her dagger and stared at the man.

"That," she replied, "all depends on who's asking."

-------------------------------

It's a simple question. Why does she act like I'm first on the Engriea's most wanted? "I'm just a guy who wants to get off of this planet." Xander replied. "My name is Xander. And you?"

Xander stuck out a hand for her to shake.

-------------------------------

Diandriaa probed his mind a bit as she reached out and shook his hand. Seemed harmless enough. "Sorry about the attitude, but you can't be too careful," she replied, "had a bit of excitement planet side last night, so I'm just being cautious. I'm Diandriaa, captain of the Emerald Queen, the pretty green ship over there on dock 42. Want to get off the planet eh? What can you do?"

-------------------------------

"Well I can do this," Xander said as he shot a ball of illunia onto a building next to him. It left a small hole in the wall. "I can also take someone's soul making them my slave and i am telepathic and telekinetic. I can also absorb small amounts of energy. What can you do?" Xander asked.

-------------------------------

"Uhh."

Diandriaa looked at the building and raised an eyebrow. "Well, I'm telepathic, I pilot my ship, I'm a hacker and I'm pretty good with hand to hand combat and can pretty much use any weapon I can get my hands on. Other than being able to put holes in things and turn people into slaves, what can you do for me that would make me want to let you on my ship?"

-------------------------------

"I can remember large amounts of information. If you ever need anything saved i can remember it. Is there anything on your ship that i can do with that on your ship?"

Xander remembered the dock number. 42.

-------------------------------

Aha, one of those brainy types, what Palantir used to refer to as a research specialist.

This guy looked like he might be helpful for keeping the ship stocked up and run errands with her or for her, and maybe even keep on eye out on Nadia if she ever decided to roam after dark (not that Nadia needed babysitting, but Diandriaa always felt a young lady should have someone big and who could fight backing her up, just in case.

Diandriaa looked over and saw a man walk out of the building that Xander just put the hole in, and look around. "Umm," she said, motioning towards the ship, "jog this way with me, that dude over there doesn't look too happy right now."

And she started to jog back to the Queen, hoping that he wasn't too far behind.

-------------------------------

Xander decided to listen to her and run. Xander didn't run in front of her because if he started chasing them Xander would fight. She sounded like a strong fighter but that's with hand to hand or if she has a gun. Xander didn't want to chance a Captain getting hurt. So Xander ran 5 feet behind her. "How far to the docks?" Xander asked.

-------------------------------

The frustration from the entire ordeal ebbed away like the hot steam she stepped out of the shower. The comm to her concerning the ship's systems was noted and put in the back of her mind as Nadia dried off quickly and dressed. The choice was not her usual blue jumpsuit, or the ragged work clothes, but rather a casual pair of baggy black cargo pants and a form fitting sleeveless white shirt. Public clothes.

Scrubbing her hair as she strolled out into the cockpit. No sign of the pilot. Wandering back down the halls with her towel around her neck, she ran her fingers through her damp tousled hair. Nadia took a moment to stop and feed the soiled sheets from Halden's bed into the room's sanitizer, a machine built into the wall with near automatic cleaning abilities. Standard issue on almost every private ship, not to mention efficient and affordable. Once the task was done, she snooped around Terry's room; pretty sure she'd find him there. The doctor was interested in her crewmates, and hadn't, as of yet, been able to exchange a few friendly words with the pilot.

A soft tap on the door, and she leaned in to listen. She was pretty sure the man was in there.

-------------------------------

It was quiet throughout most of the ship, it seemed that everyone had left. Bored with his game, as well as the silence around him, Terry left the cockpit and went for the galley to grab a drink. He was ready to leave Earth, there was nothing left for him to do.

With a glass of juice, he walked down the hallway to his room. His footsteps clanked along the metal floor, each one seeming a little louder than the one before it. At his door stood Nadia, knocking lightly.

"Well I guess I'm not alone," Terry said. "Looking for me?"

-------------------------------

"Just a little ways," Diandriaa replied, jogging nonchalantly as though nothing was wrong. She continued a mild pace, until she reached the dock.

She slowed down as she reached the ship. "Well, this is her," she said, putting her hand on the ship as though she were stroking a kitten, "the Emerald Queen. She's a damn good ship. Now, follow me on board, and I'll listen to you convince me as to why I should let you on my ship as a crewmember, and I'll introduce you to the other two crew members, and get you settled in. And remember, don't get macho and brag about how great you are, just tell me how you can be a valuable member of this ship. Have you had anything to eat yet?"

She then walked back up the ramp into the airlock, and waited for him to join her so she could show him around the ship.

-------------------------------

Xander was a little hesitant to get on her ship. What can i do to help her on her ship? I can only fight, think, and remember stuff.

Xander walked up the ramp and into her ship. He stood there in the hall waiting for directions for Diandriaa.

-------------------------------

Diandriaa noticed Xander hesitate and grinned. He looked like he wanted to be there, but he wasn't exactly sure what he wanted to do. "Well, this is the Queen. To the right is the cockpit, just ahead of us is the TPT and escape pod room, next to that is the med bay and two rooms, just to the left is my quarters, and storage room, the engine room and cargo hold is downstairs, next to the storage room is another room, then the galley. Across the galley is the rec room/training room. Follow me to the galley and you can get something to eat if your hungry and we can talk a bit. Do you have any questions?"

-------------------------------

As chance would have it, the pilot had wandered out of his room and happened upon Nadia as the girl was knocking. Straightening out, she grinned. "Tricky guy, eh, sneakin' around," she joked," Yep, you're the next poor soul I was looking for." "In all seriousness though," she reined in her humor," I just thought I'd say hello, get to know the people around me."

A hand went to the back of her head to scratch at a spot that didn't particularly itch. Squinting as if looking for something entertaining to talk about, she began," So, it's a great ship, huh?"

-------------------------------

"No, ma'am." Xander said as he followed her down the hall. Xander poked his head in the gallery and looked around. Xander walked in casually and sat down. "I'm not to hungry so I will pass on the food." Xander told her. "I already told you. The best thing I can do is remember large amounts of information at a time. That's about all I am good at. I also showed you what I can to back there on the streets."

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Diandriaa crossed her arms and stared at him. "You don't say very much," she stated, "but that's okay. I'm going to tell you what I expect. I'm a fair lady, but if you want to be on my ship, eat my food and whatever, you're going to have to pull your weight along with everyone else. I won't have you just lounging around, thinking you're getting a free ride, because if I think for one minute that you're not doing anything for the Queen, then you will go.

As far as rules go, I only have a few. No one has seniority above anyone else, except me. No one tells anyone else how to do their job; you will respect the other crewmembers, as well as I will have them respect you. Don't lie to me, if you have a problem, make a mistake, whatever, you come and tell me. I'm human just like you and we all make mistakes. The only thing that really pisses me off is when people don't take responsibility for their mistakes. You are free to come and go as you please, as long as you let me know so I can get a hold of you if I need to.

As for your job on the ship, other than your mental fighting skills, which will probably come in handy, you'll be my research specialist. If I need background on something, or a map of a certain area of the planet, you'll have to get that for me, whether on the net or asking around town or something. Also, I'm going to give you a list of every day things aboard the ship and how low I want it to get before you get more. You'll inventory things, and when it hits the minimum, you come to me, and either you and I will go get things, or I will send you. I have a loader droid, so you don't have to worry about lugging heavy things on board.

Now, let me introduce you to Nadia and Terry."

She grabbed the comlink. "Lady Nadia and Mister Terry, could you please come to the galley, I want you to meet someone."

As she got the mic back on the receiver, she turned back to Xander. "Now, do you have any questions?"

-------------------------------

"Yes, where are we going and will i get to fight anyone? I know you can read my mind. I caught you in it when we where back on the docks. I am also telepathic." Xander told her. "I'm sorry for being rude. I just don't like people entering my mind."

Xander stood up when the other two crewmembers came into the room.

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Diandriaa stopped short of apologizing. "Well, considering I don't know you, and you were coming on board my ship, I had a right to know if you were dangerous or not and what your intentions were, and considering I have the talent, I put it to use. How smart would I have been to let you blindly into my ship and get my crew or myself killed? You would have done the same if you had your own ship. If you have a problem with that, then tell me now, cause I will do it more often, which is one of the reasons I said never lie to me. Cause I will know, and its because I am psychic. I have it, and I will use it to protect my ship, my crew and myself.

As for fighting, I don't go around the universe looking for fights, but I will if I have to. We'll be leaving Earth in a couple of days, but I don't know where yet. I'm trying to do some research on something, once I get something concrete, we'll go there. Probably Anuurn, I don't know yet.

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"Well, hello to you too," Terry answered. He looked her in the eye for a moment, and then looked around the ship a little.

"Yeah, this ship is pretty nice," he said, resuming eye contact with the girl. "Better than the last one I was on, those guys were just allowing anyone on the ship...didn't matter if they had any useful skills or not. Well anyway..."

Terry was interrupted by Dian's call, she requested that he and Nadia report to the galley to meet the newest member of the crew. "Well, I guess we can talk after this," he said.

-------------------------------

The guy was nice enough, someone she recognized as a future friend. It was good to know that no one on board rubbed her the wrong way. It had occurred on the old company ship, and living your formative years unable to escape from someone you couldn't stand wasn't the more pleasant side of her childhood. Thank God the ship had been as large as it was.

With the comm call from Diandriaa, she caught a mental "whiff" of someone else aboard. "A new mechanic," the girl wondered aloud. Following Terry into the galley, she caught sight of their curvaceous captain and the rugged male that sat in the galley. Standing in the doorway, she looked questioningly to Diandriaa. Our mechanic? She asked gently, refraining from inserting the thought question into her captain's mind. Rather, it was a quiet broadcast in the direction of the older woman. Somehow, invading a superior's mind, usually a friendly adult seemed rude. But that was her youthful instinct, the tradition to treat elders with respect.

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"Nadia, Terry, this is Xander Barton, he's going to be our new..."

New what? She was having a hard time describing his job.

"...research specialist, he'll also be in charge of doing odd jobs around the ship, running errands and whatnot. Xander, Nadia here is our med specialist. What she says, in terms of your health, goes. If she checks you out and says you're unfit for duty and have to stay in bed until you're well, then that's what you do. That goes for me as well, and Terry, just so we're all clear on that. Which brings me to another thing; I think Nadia should give us all physicals, just to make sure we're all in top form. That can be done whenever, as long as its done before we leave the planet or while we're in space.

Terry is our navigations officer, kinda like a copilot. He also doubles as a gunner and is Nadia's back up in case for some reason, she gets incapacitated."

"Pretty much, if we go somewhere, and get lost, its his fault," she added jokingly. "Anyway, Nadia, if you're not busy, I'll go first with the physical, and Terry, you can show Xander around the ship. You can put him in where Halden was staying." Turning to Xander, she said, "Which is right next door to the galley here. I think you'll like it. It has a bed instead of a cot, a dresser for your clothes and things, a desk, a computer in the wall for your work or personal use, and a small refrigeration unit for your private food you buy with your own money, and also your own bathroom. Everything in the galley is for everyone, anything you don't want touched, you can keep in your room.

That being said, lets get this over with Nadia."

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"I'm Xander. I am twenty-five years old. I am six feet tall and as you can see i have brown hair and white eyes. I am not blind for those of you who think that white eyes mean your blind. I do own a ship but i don't have a crew for it. So i came here." Xander told the rest of the crew. "I also love animals. I am planning on getting a Falcon soon."

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"Well, welcome aboard," Terry said. "I guess I'll show you where everything is, or you can take a look for yourself, the choice is up to you."

He walked over to the counter and grabbed a piece of bread. Finishing it off in a few bites, he turned toward Xander.

"This wont take long," he said. "Just follow me, if you would. I'm gonna make this short, I have a few things to do myself."

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"Just show me my room and the med bay. I think i need to know where my room is and Nadia has to do her medical thing." Xander said.

"I just hope she doesn't ask me to turn my head and cough." Xander said jokingly.

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"Right. Well, your room is next door, just go to the next room on the right. The med bay is across the hall." Terry left the galley, and went straight to Nadia's work area. "Here it is. Once the ladies are done you can go next, 'til then, I'll be in my room if you need anything," he said, assuming that Xander followed with him.

Into his room he went, having the door shut behind him. He pulled out the bag that he brought onboard and placed it on his bed. Inside were only a few pairs of clothes; he would have to buy more later. Also in the case laid a small projector, a tiny CD with a cover, and a full Kung Fu suit, an old form of martial arts he had always been interested in. It was very old; it almost seemed to outdate time itself.

Well, cant exactly remember the last time I used this stuff, but it has saved me a few times. Guess I could get into it again.

Terry took everything out of the case, then placed the clothes in a dresser drawer. He then changed into the black suit, put on the matching slip on shoes, and took the projector and CD into the rec room. He found a spot that was spacey enough, setting down the battery-operated projector. "Guess I'd better stretch first. Don't wanna pull a muscle or anything like I did the first time..."

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Xander went into his room. I need to get some more clothes. At lease i haven't lost my necklace that my dad gave me. Xander walked out of his room after checking it out and he went to the Medical bay and leaned against the wall until it was his turn to get checked.

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"That guy could definitely work on his people skills." Diandriaa mumbled to herself. Other than that one little joke he made, it didn't seem like he was used to having people around. "Ah, he'll get used to it, and probably open up more and be a little more enthusiastic."

It was unlike her to let someone so unenthusiastic about anything aboard her ship, but something made her change her mind. She walked out of the galley and into the med bay, and sat on the table waiting for Nadia.

"Everything always comes to pass."

She could have sworn that was Palantir's voice. She shook her head and kept her mouth shut. She decided against saying anything to Nadia, the last thing she needed was a request for a psych evaluation.

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Xander walked out of the ship and down the docks. I am going to become an Engreia cop. My ship is just up here.

Xander got into his ship and left Earth. He punched in the coordinates for Scorpion Stations and Engreia HQ. It was time he joined Engreia and used his skill for good.

-------------------------------

Diandriaa heard someone leave.

Probably the new guy.

Oh well. Probably figured out what he wanted to be, and decided to go be it.

She sighed and laid on the table, waiting for Nadia to work her craft. She wanted to make sure she was okay. She felt fine, but it never hurt to be sure. Now that she had a med specialist on board, might as well give her something to do.

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"For those of you just beginning, take it slow and easy. It's best that you learn the basics, of course. Don't try to skip ahead and try the hardest technique before you learn your first step." There was a hologram of an instructor, giving a brief speech before starting the actual physical procedures of the martial art.

Terry was midway through the program; he left it at the last section he finished on before leaving Erik and the rest of the old army. While he lived aboard the Tigershark, not once did he use any of this equipment, he didn't feel it was needed at the time. But he did want to get back into it; there was no sense in starting it without finishing. He remembered that earlier in the program, the instructor suggested that the users purchase a sparring dummy to practice these techniques on; it was the closest they could get to sparring with another person who truly knew this style of fighting. The only way to find out how effective this move is on the user is to actually be in a dojo/school, but since Terry was never prone to stay on a planet for very long, there was no time for it.

"....Alright, now that we've discussed that, lets get started. We'll begin with the tiger stance, then move into a fore fist strike..."

It continued on this way, adding several moves into line with the first. Once the segment was over, Terry had had enough for the day, so he picked up the projector and CD case and took them back into his room. He wondered if anyone else would be interested in it, preferably Xander, since Nadia and Dian were busy at the moment. He walked into the man's room.

"Hey, I have this thing here that will teach you Kung Fu if you wanna check it out..." Terry stopped, realizing that the room was empty. There was nothing there, with the exception of the properties of the room. All of Xander's belongings weren't there. "He's gone already...oh well."

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Nadia saw the man leave his room as she strolled to her med bay. But she stopped and did a double take as the hatch opened. Not saying a word, Xander Barton skipped out of her life as quickly as he had jumped in. "I can tell we're going to have trouble finding a mechanic," the girl said quietly to herself as she entered the white room.

"Hey, Dian, did you hear the guy leave? Is that it for him? Just up and out?" Her arms were folded across her stomach, just a little peeved. It was exactly in the best manners. Still, it was more surprising than anything.

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Diandriaa just laid there, tapping her foot on the metal edge of the exam table, waiting for the perky med tech to stop talking so she could answer. "I guess so," she replied, frowning, "a convenient waste of time. He was probably bored. Anyway, I'll put the ad out for another mechanic as soon as I'm done here."

She then turned her head to the side, looking at Nadia, as if to say, "Can we do this please?"

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Laughing at Dian's look, she moved over to the table. "Alright then, just lemme collect a thing or two." She considered taking blood samples, since she was creating a base for all of her future patients. Blood samples, urine samples, a regular physical just to be sure that they were all in the best of health, no doubt. Next time, of course, it would be a normal physical. But for now, Nadia would be thorough.

She pulled out a pad of paper and a pen, a syringe, a cylindrical, plastic beaker with a vacuum tight lid, a stethoscope and an object of which she hadn't bothered learning the name. It had a four or five inch black handle and a heavy box shaped black piece at the top. On one side it came to a hollow point, and on the opposite side it had a sort of window, perhaps a half an inch to an inch long on all sides. It was also adorned with an internal light, flipped on by a switch just below the box described and it could magnify and light dark places, being ideal for the ears. And, in fact, meant for examining the ear canal. She had used it to examine eyes as well, the light useful for testing the dilation if pupils. It had a name, scientific and all that and one day she would bother figuring it out. But today wasn't the day.

In fact, she didn't know the name of a lot of the objects she used, which was just fine with her. She knew what to do with them, fortunately. The last object she picked out of a cabinet was an arm wrap to check blood pressure, also nameless to her, as well as a mallet with a triangular rubber head for reflex testing. "First things first. I'm going to take some blood, and some other samples and start a file for you and Terry. If you have any medical history from other doctors that you know of, it might be helpful in the future. I don't know what sort of allergies you have to what, or what you've broken, et cetera."

She asked the woman to roll up her sleeve and expose her arm, taking a moment while she did so to grab a cotton ball and rubbing alcohol. Cleaning the area and tenderly inserting the needle into a vein close to the skin's surface, she drew a bit of the thick red liquid and set it aside. She would get back to it after the rest. "I want a urine sample, even though it won't tell me much for long term illnesses. You can take care of that sometime later today. Roll your sleeve up a bit more so I can get at your upper arm."

Wrapping the captain's muscular arm and strapping the Velcro, Nadia worked the pump and watched the dial at the top of the rubber bulb. The pad around Diandriaa's arm bloated and the feel of a pulse on the inside of her arm became apparent to her. Nadia took a note on the paper, muttering something about needing a better method of note taking. While unstrapping her arm, the girl said aloud," I can't wait until we go out for errands. I have an ever lengthening list of items I could use." She pulled on the stethoscope and requested that the captain raise her shirt to expose her back. "Let's hope my deccas aren't gone before I'm done," Nadia added as she pushed the earpieces into her ears. Warming the pad of metal and plastic before applying it to the woman's skin, she asked the captain to do a few breathing exercises. As she suspected, everything was quite normal.

Putting the stethoscope away, she took out the nameless object and took a look in her ears. The woman's hygiene was good. It wasn't overly waxy in the canal. Everything looked just perky. Moving around to her eyes, Nadia flashed the light for a second. The pupils shrank to small black pins and enlarged when the light was flicked off. Her eyes showed no irregularities, just as healthy as could be.

Then, asking her to sit up as straight as possible, Nadia checked her bones, joints, and the like. The girl prided herself in the fact that her hands were warm and smooth, something that gained her popularity on her old crew ship. The medic that had taken her parents place had been old with gnarled, cold hands, rough and chilling. She finished up with the rubber mallet, an exact tap here or there and was satisfied with the results.

"I've got good news and bad news," Nadia said, standing up straight and putting the mallet aside. "The good news is, you won't die today. The bad news is, you have a sickness we call mortality. You have all the right symptoms." She grinned and began organizing things. "So, call Terry in and keep that cup with you. I want something in there before I go to bed so I can have the computer take a look at it." Standing back, she allowed the captain room to get up.

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"I haven't had any major illnesses, I did suffer a stab wound about 6 years ago Sol. Didn't suffer any damage though..."

Actually, that was a lie. She nearly died when the knife shredded through her stomach and the second wound got her in the liver. But she wasn't about to tell Nadia that a nine-year-old autistic boy she just rescued, healed her and she never suffered any damage from it since.

She would tell her that story later.

She giggled at Nadia's little "mortality" joke as she took the cup from her. "We'll be heading planet side day after tomorrow," she stated, "we can all run some errands before we got visit Palantir's gravesite. Which reminds me, I have to ask Terry if he wants to go. Anyway, I'll bring you this back pretty soon, and remember, the computer in here has a program for you to record all your findings and whatnot, its even voice activated. For your protection, I'd do a brief file on what you did for Halden; avoid legal problems later, just in case. I'll call Terry in."

Just before heading out the door, she pushed the button on the com. "Terry, please report to the med bay. It's your turn to get poked at."

Terry stood up, slipping his shoes back on before heading to the med bay. He felt a little nervous; it had always been that way when it came getting any kind of check ups. The feeling just came about naturally.

On his way to the room, he passed by Diandriaa, who just walked out after calling him. "Well, I guess it wasn't too bad, you came out alive," he said jokingly. He let her go about her business, then walked in and stood in front of the door.

"Alright, I'm ready," he said. "Just don't hurt me too much."


End file.
